The Alchemist Games
by Fullmetalfan
Summary: Roy is invited to participate in a tournament called The Alchemist Games. When he refuses, Riza is taken as blackmail to get him to participate. Rated T for mild language, violence, and ass grabbing in the third chapter. RoyxRiza. MANGA SPOILERS!
1. Chapter 1: The Mysterious Meeting

Hello there readers! I'm very happy that you've actually considered reading my story or have accidentally clicked on it. I love FMA and I thought it would be cool to write a story with the characters. This is my first fanfic, so read it with an open mind. Oh, and thanks to **Fuhrer Allie** for helping me with choosing a name for the bad guy.

**Disclaimer: **Okay, it's pretty obvious that I don't own FMA, sob and I bow down to Hiromu Arakawa for creating the greatest anime EVER! But I do own a computer, and all characters that you've never seen before are of my own creation from my crazed mind.

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**The Alchemist Games**

**Chapter 1: A Mysterious Meeting**

It was another brisk and cloudless night in Central. The streets were quiet, except for the occasional meow from a stray cat. After all, it _was_ three in the morning. Everyone was asleep, resting for the new day that would start in a few hours. Everyone that is, except for two people.

"Have all preparations been made?" asked a woman with a cold and wispy voice. The woman, half hidden in the shadows, wore a long black dress which matched her equally jet-black hair.

"Yes Miss Lust. All of the invitations have been printed and sealed. All that's left to do is deliver them to the State Alchemists." said a voice. The speaker stepped forward and light from the nearby street lamp washed over his tan skin. He was dressed in a men's black tank-top and dirty brown pants. He had short brown hair, and even though it was dark, you could still see the light reflecting off of his red eyes.

"Quiet Kaese. Keep your voice down. You never know when a Dog might be sniffing around." said Lust in a calm and collected tone.

"Sorry ma'am. You're absolutely right." Kaese said, looking around, checking to see if anyone was watching.

"Good. Now tomorrow I want you to deliver the invitations."

"What! Deliver the invitations!" Kaese whispered loudly. "Doesn't this seem too soon?"

"_I'll_ decide if it's too soon." Lust said harshly. "All plans for the tournament have been set. And the sooner we start it, the better. I don't want any word of what our real intentions are to reach the State Alchemists; especially Fullmetal. It could ruin our plans if they knew."

"Very well." Kaese replied. "What are our current orders?" he asked.

"Tomorrow you and your men will deliver the invitations for our alchemy tournament to the State Alchemists on the list that I gave you. They'll have two weeks to respond. After those two weeks, we'll meet again to discuss the next step." ordered Lust, flipping her hair back with her hand.

"And if they refuse or realize that this is a trick?"

"I don't think many will. Most are too greedy to pass up on the grand prize we're offering for the top combatant. Not to mention that this fighting tournament is a wonderful way to show off to their fellow alchemists. If they don't come for the money, they'll surely come for the bragging rights." Crossing her arms, Lust continued. "However, if there are ones who suspect something, you might need to find a way to 'motivate' them; so to speak."

"Hehehe. I catch your drift. Leave everything to me and my boys. They won't know what's coming." Kaese said with a smirk.

"Good, now leave. You have your orders."

The man named Kaese turned and left, leaving the street quiet once again. A few moments passed before Lust turned and walked in the opposite direction that Kaese had turned down.

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Lust walked down the dark streets smirking to herself. Their plan was going just as they had predicted. She had Kaese and his men wrapped around her finger; and she intended to make use of them. She chuckled to herself. Men were so easily fooled. And this bunch was no exception. They were so blinded by their rage for what happened in Ishbal that they couldn't see that they were merely being used as scape-goats.

After crossing an intersection, Lust passed by an empty alley. When she had almost passed it, an ambiguous voice called out, making her stop.

"Hey there pretty lady. You know it's dangerous to walk alone at night. There are some real creeps wandering around here yah know." An unrecognizable man stepped out of the shadows.

"Envy, you know I hate it when you make fun of me." sighed Lust, who didn't seem surprised at all. She flipped her hair back in boredom.

The man was now changing form. When he was done, his real form had crazy palm tree-like black hair with a tint of green to it. He wore a black sports bra and a matching skort.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help it. So how'd the meeting with Kaese, or whatever his name is, go?" asked Envy, looking at his finger nails.

"It was fine. They're doing everything that I ask. Our plans are going just as we scheduled. The game set, and now we just need the pieces." Lust replied.

"Hahaha! I think it's so funny how that Ishbalan rebel gang thinks _we're_ helping them to get revenge on the State. Little do they know what our real intentions are." cracked Envy, kicking down a nearby trash can for fun.

"Yes…Master did a fine job with this plan. Staging a State Alchemy tournament to test out our prime candidates for making the Philosopher's stone was a brilliant idea. And this way, we get to have some fun as well."

"And using those rebels was also genius. Someone to pin it all on when our little road test is done."

"Let's head back now; we've stayed here long enough. Master will want to hear our reports on tonight's meeting." said Lust, looking down the street.

And with those being the last words, the two homunculi disappeared into the darkness.

So, what did you think? Sorry if it was kind of slow, but it's sort of like a prologue. I promise the next chapters will be more exciting. Please review, and constructive criticism is always welcome, but let's try to leave the flaming to Roy! () Oh, and sorry to all of the Envy fans about the sports bra comment, but that is kind of what he's wearing……

Anyway, thanks for reading! Below is the preview for chapter 2.

-fullmetalfan

**Chapter 2: The Invitations**

Our all-around favorite alchemists Edward and Roy receive invitations to participate in the first annual State Alchemist Games! But, suspicious of the invites they received, both refuse. Upon hearing this, Kaese and his gang decide that as "motivation," they'll kidnap Winry and Riza and use them as hostages to get Roy and Ed to participate in the tournament! What will Roy and Ed do?

Find out in the next chapter of **The Alchemist Games**!


	2. Chapter 2: The Invitations

Hello there everybody! Sorry it took a little while to get this chapter up, but I've had a bunch of tests to study for. I think that because the school year is almost over, the teachers are going into 'Nazi mode', or something because on top of the three tests I've had to take this week, I've also had two projects to turn in and a informative speech to present to the class. Also, I decided to move the kidnappings to the third chapter, just to pace things out a bit. SORRY! Besides, I was just having too much fun with the dialogue in this chapter.

So anyway, I'd like to thank **Fuhrer Allie**, **The New Fullmetal Alchemist**, **Anicka** and **LuSt for SlOtH** for _actually_ reviewing the first chapter! I've had a bunch of hits, but only four reviews. Oh well, hopefully more will come! And to the awesome people who did review, I send Armstrong sparkles to you all!

**Disclaimer-** It should be obvious that I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. But I wish I did…Why do you think I'm writing a fanfic anyway? Hah! Just kidding. Hiromu Arakawa is my idol.

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**The Alchemist Games**

**Chapter 2: The Invitations**

Edward and Alphonse Elric paced themselves down the streets of Central. They had just returned from Dublith yesterday, and were ordered to check in with their leading officer; Colonel Roy Mustang.

"Aren't you excited to be back in Central Brother?" asked Al.

"Are you kidding me! Hell no!" yelled Ed, looking at Al with one eyebrow raised.

"But why not? It's been almost two months since we've seen everybody." reasoned Al, who glanced over to a very grumpy Ed.

As Al was speaking, a large group of tourists walked by, whispering rapidly. The Elric brothers ignored them; they were used to this kind of thing. How often do you see a seven foot suit of armor and a 15 year-old midget-kid carrying a certified State Alchemist pocket watch anyway?

"I don't want to see anybody if it means having to see the Colonel." Ed retorted.

"But what if Lieutenant Colonel Hughes is there? Don't you want to say 'hello' to him? Or what about First Lieutenant Hawkeye? She's always nice to us." Asked Al, as the two brothers reached an intersection and took a left. As they rounded the corner, the Central HQ building came into view at the end of the block.

"Well, I wouldn't mind seeing Lt. Colonel Hughes. He's a good guy." Ed said with a newfound sense of enthusiasm. "And the First Lt. isn't so bad either, but she freaks me out when she whips out her pistol…she's so scary that she makes Mustang cower in fear. And, if you ask me, he deserves ever bullet shot at him."

"But Brother, Colonel Mustang has done so much for us. You shouldn't-"

Al was cut off by Ed's ranting.

"I don't care!" yelled Ed. "You don't have to put up with his crap! I just know that the second I step into his office, the first words outta his mouth are gonna be some crack about my height, even though I'm not short!"

As they got closer to the Central HQ building, they started to pass more soldiers who stopped to salute. The Elric brothers were well known in the military; Ed for being the youngest State Alchemist in history, and Al for being, well, a seven foot 14 year-old kid who always wore a suit of armor.

Finally, they reached the entrance and headed inside.

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Walking up the stairs, Ed paused for a moment and ran a gloved hand through his golden hair.

"Al, you go mingle or hangout somewhere downtown. The Colonel only wants to see me, and I don't want you to be subjected to any of his lame-ass jokes."

"That's okay Brother. I like to hear what's going on in the military when we're away." said Al.

Ed shrugged. "Alright, suit yourself."

As they reached the door, officers Breda and Falman greeted them. Falman saluted and began to talk.

"Hey there Fullmetal! How's it-"

He was suddenly cut off by a louder, and much angrier, voice.

"Damn it Colonel! This is the third time I've asked you to do your paperwork this morning, and you still haven't signed one form!" First Lt. Hawkeye's voice could be heard from behind the door to Mustang's office.

Ed, Al, Breda and Falman all turned towards the door and slowly backed up. They could tell that the arguing behind the door was about to get uglier very quickly.

"But Hawkeye, I've just been busy…uh, making important phone calls. Before you walked in, I was just about to start my paperwork." Roy replied semi-confidently.

Ed, Al, Breda and Falman all jumped as they heard a gun go off in the office.

"Flirting with an ex-girlfriend hardly warrants as an important phone call!" said Riza sternly.

"Okay, okay, you're right! I'm starting my paperwork now! See!"

Rustling could be heard as well as the opening of desk drawers.

"Oh, would you look at that, it seems like my pen is out of ink…" Roy casually said.

Everyone outside jumped a second time as another gunshot was heard.

"Oh, but I'm sure I have another one here somewhere!" Roy quickly replied.

"Good. Now get back to work Sir." Hawkeye finished.

The four guys standing outside the door stood open-mouthed. They knew that Hawkeye was strict, but WOW. She was the only one who could, or would even dare, to speak to the great Flame Alchemist like that.

Shaking himself out of shock, Ed was the first to speak.

"Should we knock? Or Al and I could just come back later…"

His question was quickly answered as the First Lt. opened the door and stepped out of Mustang's office, smoking gun at her side.

"Man, guys are so immature sometimes…" Riza said, shaking her head and fixing her pinned-up blond hair.Looking up with amber eyes, she saw everyone standing in front of the door. "Oh Alphonse, Edward, when did you guys get here? How was your trip?" she asked cheerfully.

Ed and Al looked at each other. Was this seriously the same woman they heard yelling a few minutes ago?

"Hello there First Lt. Hawkeye," Alphonse said. "We just arrived in Central last night and came to check in."

Before Riza could reply, Ed butted in. "Yeah, speaking of that…can I see the Colonel now?" He asked nervously.

"Oh yes, of course." she replied.

"Cool. Hey Al, why don't you and the First Lt. catch up? I'll find you later." Ed said as he opened the door.

"Yeah, see you later Ed!" Al said back.

Before Ed had fully opened the door, Riza stopped him. "Oh Ed, when you're done talking to Colonel Mustang, can you tell him that I'll bring his mail by later? Also, let him know that he shouldn't even think about escaping from the window again because he'll still have paperwork to do tomorrow." Riza requested, shooting a glare towards the inside of the door.

"Sure, I'd be happy to tell him." Ed said cheerfully as he walked through the door.

Roy was wiping the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. There were two bullet holes still smoking in the wall behind his desk.

"Hello there Fullmetal, have you gotten shorter since I last saw you?" He said with smugness returning to his voice with every word.

"AARRGGGGHHH! Who you calling so small you could kick him around like a hacky-sack! I'm not short!" Ed screamed.

"You could have fooled me." Roy replied, smirking.

"Shut up! How would you like it if I cut off your legs and stuck 'em on your head!" Ed yelled.

"Even if you _did_ do that, I'd still be taller than you." Mustang shot back.

The rest of the meeting continued like this until Roy got tired of Ed's threats and threatened to discharge him from the military. They then began talking about important matters with the occasional sarcastic remark towards each other. Meanwhile...

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After talking with Al, Riza left him to chat with Second Lt. Havoc and went to go get Roy's mail.

In the mail room, Riza walked over to the mail clerk.

"Hello there. I'm here to pick up Colonel Roy Mustang's mail," she said. "On second thought, also Edward Elric's mail too."

"Again?" the man asked. "Doesn't that man ever get his own mail?"

"Oh, I don't mind." she replied, which _was_ true. She really didn't mind. Riza felt it was her duty to serve and help Roy in any way she could.

"You're such a nice girl. And if this Mustang was a _real_ man, he'd get _your_ mail, instead of the other way around." The mail clerk paused and thought for a moment. "Actually, I've heard that he's a real ladies man. So…has he tried to put the moves on you?" he asked, winking at her.

Surprised by the man's comment, Riza thought to herself for a moment. _'Nah, Roy would never flirt with me, not when I'm his paperwork Nazi…not to mention the fact that every time he tries, I pull out my pistol. Maybe someday, things will be different…AHHH! What am I thinking?'_

"Oh, no Sir. Relationships between fellow military personnel aren't allowed anyway." she replied.

"What! I'm surprised. You're a very pretty lady yah know." He said, smiling.

Riza didn't feel comfortable with the direction that this conversation was turning. "Uh, thank you…" she said, looking at her watch. She wanted to get back to Roy- if he and Ed hadn't had already killed each other. Plus, the mail clerk was making her uncomfortable. "Uh, Sir, the mail…"

"Oh, sorry, right away."

He went back behind the desk and soon came out with two pieces of paper.

"Hmmmm…here's all that was there. I don't recognize the engraving, but by the looks of it, these letters are important. All the alchemists got them." he said, handing her the papers.

"Thank you." she said, taking them and walking towards the door. "Have a nice day."

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Roy and Ed were arguing again when Riza knocked on the door.

"Come in," Roy said.

"Here Sir." Riza said, handing him his letter. "And here Edward, I picked up your mail too."

"Thanks!" Ed replied, grabbing the letter.

But before anyone could say anything else, Al burst into the room.

"Pardon the intrusion," Al gasped, "Brother, Winry just called, and she's in Central!"

"What! Why is she here? I haven't busted up my auto-mail yet!"

Hawkeye and Mustang just glanced at each other.

"She didn't say, but she's at the train station now, and wants us to pick her up."

Roy butted in. "It's okay Fullmetal, you're dismissed anyway. Go pick up your girlfriend." he said casually.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Ed yelled defensively, blushing at the same time.

"Come on Brother, forget it! We have to go." Al pleaded.

Ed glared at Roy once more before stomping out of the room. When the door was fully shut, Roy spoke.

"So, now that the circus is out of here, lets take a look at that letter."

"Sir, you should cut them some slack. They're only-"

Roy put his hand up to silence her. She then handed him the letter and he looked at it. The parchment was the color tan with a gold trim. It was also very heavy. There wasn't a return address on it either.

"Well would you look at this…"

Riza leaned over Roy's shoulder and read the invitation. It said:

_Congratulations!_

_You have been invited to participate in the first annual_

_State Alchemist Games_

_You are being given the once in a lifetime opportunity to compete against other State Alchemists from around Amestris for the title of the Greatest Alchemist. First place winner will also receive $1,000,000 dollars!_

_R.S.V.P. in the next two weeks and further information will soon be sent to you. If you are planning to participate, request vacation time from your leading officer._

"Hmmmm…First Lt. Hawkeye, what do you think?" asked Roy.

"Permission to speak freely Sir?" Riza asked respectfully.

"Go ahead."

"I think it's a load of crap. Whoever sent this is obviously setting a trap."

Roy laughed. "And what makes you say that? More alchemists have gotten them. It's not like they're targeting me."

"Well…because first off, there's no military seal on it. If this was a real State competition, then surely the Fuhrer would've signed it. Second, no one has even heard of 'The Alchemist Games'. It's just so out of the blue. Why have major competitions if you're not going to advertise them?" Riza said, biting her lip.

Roy chuckled and smiled at Riza. "Your last name fits you well Hawkeye. You see through everything."

That comment made Riza blush, which was a rare thing to happen. '_Did he just say that?' _she thought. Bringing herself quickly back to reality, Riza said the only thing that came to mind. "Thank you Sir," she replied, smiling back at him.

"Well, now that that's settled," Roy said, pulling out one of his gloves from his pocket and putting it on, "I believe we have some paperwork to finish- or, in my case, to start." And then he snapped his fingers, igniting the parchment. When all of the flames had died out, Riza returned to her desk.

Roy took a stack of paper and began to attack it. Or what was attacking in Roy's opinion. In reality, it was really just more like skimming the writing and signing it. But soon, his gaze began to wander around the room until it fell upon Riza. When his dark eyes reached her, he began to think to himself.

'_Look at her, doing all of that paperwork…and I hardly even get my small stack done. Maybe I should start doing my work…it would leave less work for her and I could actually go home on time. But I should do it more for her. Yeah…then maybe if I did my work, she'd reward me with wearing a miniskirt for a day…' _His stomach suddenly did a flip. '_What was that? Could it be that I-'_

But before he could think any further, Riza interrupted the silence.

"Sir, are you okay? You've been staring at that piece of paperwork for a while now."

"What are you doing tonight?" Roy suddenly blurted out.

Riza was surprised at the random question. She wasn't even sure if she had heard him right. "What?"

Roy asked again. "What are you doing tonight? Have any dinner plans?"

"Well, uh…no. No, I don't think so." Riza stuttered.

"Good. I'm taking you out on a dinner date tonight."

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So what did you think? Sorry if you were expecting a lot more to happen. I really didn't expect this next chapter to turn out the way it did, or to be this long. I had a whole list of things I wanted to happen, but I just started typing and I couldn't control my fingers. Plus, I was trying to set the mood of the whole RizaxRoy and EdxWinry thing. But I like Roy and Riza pairings better, so I decided to add them first. I guess it won't be so bad if I move the kidnappings to chapter three. That's going to be an exciting chapter! I've already started working on it, so I'll update soon! 

Thanks for reading!

-Fullmetalfan


	3. Chapter 3: Kidnapped!

Hello, Fullmetalfan here! I am soooooo sorry it took this long to get this chapter up. I guess that I have terrible physic powers because I said that I'd get this chapter up quickly, which didn't really happen… Anyway, here's the third chapter, which is my longest one yet. I'm proud of it, but it took forever to write! Oh well, at least its done now! Oh, and hey, just as an update, I've decided to make this mainly a RoyxRiza story. Sorry to all of the EdxWinry fans out there. They'll still be in my story, but they just won't be main characters.

Now I'd like to thank all of the new people who reviewed my last chapter! Thanks to **ZRBxSTITCHES**, **FruitsBasketFreak44**, **Cles,** **LuciousLadyLucius**, **Patience Halliwell,** and **C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only** for the new reviews! You guys are great! Also, I'd like to send a special thanks to **Fuhrer Allie** and **The New Fullmetal Alchemist **for your continuing support!

**Disclaimer- **I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist and I never will…I think everybody should know this by now. Unless in some freak-accident I switch bodies with Hiromu Arakawa…and then I _would_ own FMA! That would be cool. **Yeah.**

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**The Alchemist Games**

**Chapter 3: Kidnapped!**

That night, Roy and Riza walked into the restaurant. The place wasn't anything fancy, but it _was_ lit by candlelight _and_ had a dance floor. The hostess seated the two into a comfy booth near the stage where the band would play when the dance floor opened. She gave the two their menus, and left them to ponder about what to eat. However, before she left, she made a special effort to be extra nice to the Colonel by winking at him when listing the wine selection, _and_ rubbing his shoulder. Roy acted like he didn't notice, but Riza sure did.

'_Ok, this is just messed up.'_ Riza thought. _'It's obvious to see that we're on a date, and the Colonel is **still** getting hit on. I knew he was a playboy, but WOW._ _Geez. Wait, did I just call this a date? No Riza, bad Riza; you can't do that. Remember, this is just a work dinner, nothing romantic. Just work. You have to be the sensible one here, because God knows that Roy won't be.'_

The two decided against calling their dinner a 'date,' because Riza wasn't comfortable with the word (this was much to Roy's disappointment.). Not to mention, as Riza clearly pointed out, that dating co-workers was against military conduct. So, the two decided that this was just a dinner to discuss work matters. It was also Roy's way of apologizing to Riza for always making her stay late to make sure he finished his work.

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Two and a half hours after they had arrived, Roy and Riza were now deep into conversation. Even though this was _supposed _to be a work dinner, so far they had hardly talked about work at all. Roy was surprised at how relaxed Riza was tonight. Right now she was explaining something about training Black Hayate.

While Riza was talking, Roy took the opportunity to gaze at her. Riza had let her hair down, which was unusual to see. Because of the atmosphere of the restaurant, Roy had convinced Riza to dress up. While he was wearing a pair of black dress pants and a dark-blue button-up shirt, she had worn a light-blue sundress with a tightly knitted white button-down sweater, just in case she got chilly. Roy hadn't had expected her to look so pretty. He was expecting her to just wear a blouse- and maybe a skirt (if he was lucky,), but when he went to pick her up, he had gasped at the sight of her when she opened the door. Riza immediately yelled in defense (while blushing,) that this was the only fancy thing she had that wasn't at the cleaners, and threatened to pull out her gun if he wouldn't stop gaping.

Even though Roy wouldn't say it to her face for fear of her temper, he thought that Riza looked drop-dead gorgeous tonight. _'She looks beautiful tonight. I mean, I've seen her in dresses before at military banquets, but tonight she's simply **glowing**. And that dress fits her so nicely…When I become Fuhrer, I really need to change the dress code. Riza really has nice legs, and she'd look great in a miniskirt…Wait, WHAT! What am I thinking? I don't usually think about her like this…what's going on with me?'_ he thought.

All of a sudden, music slowly drifted down from the stage and wafted across the room, indicating that the dance floor was now open.

Roy immediately snapped back to reality and jumped up.

"Come on Riza, let's dance."

"Sir, I thought this was just supposed to be a work dinner. If anyone saw us, then they might get the wrong idea." Riza said with one eyebrow raised.

"Riza, after work I'm not 'Sir', I'm just Roy. And if that's the case, then we just won't let anyone see us!" Roy replied, flashing his trademark smirk. "Also, if you haven't noticed, for being a work dinner, we haven't talked about one work-related thing yet." he said, tugging on her arm.

"That's not true. You mentioned that the Lt. Colonel was coming back tomorrow from the East. That's work related." Riza stated maturely.

"Look, now you're being difficult." Roy said, smiling teasingly at her. He was having fun.

Crossing her arms, Riza spoke. "So? One of us has to be."

"Alright, fine! You wanna do this the hard way? Then we'll do this the hard way." Roy said, jumping around her and grabbing her purse. Immediately turning his back and walking towards the dance floor, Roy opened the purse and began going through it.

"Okay, now let's see what we have in here…"

Riza immediately jumped out of her seat. "Roy Mustang, give that back!" she yelled.

Roy laughed. Throwing the purse back into the booth, he grabbed Riza's hand and dragged her to the dance floor.

"Sir, please, I'm really not a good dancer-"

"I told you, after work I'm not 'Sir', I'm _Roy_. And it's no big deal, I'll teach you. You're going to dance, that's an order. It's rare to see you so dolled up, and I want to see you move a bit." Roy said slyly.

"Roy, watch it!" Riza said angrily, shocked at what he had just said.

Even though Roy knew she was pissed, he couldn't help but notice that she was blushing as well.

"Sorry, I was just having a bit of fun." he said, sheepishly smiling at her.

Riza opened her mouth to object, but after mouthing a few silent words, she decided not to.

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On the dance floor, Roy and Riza took their places. Roy took Riza's hands and began to show her some moves and steps that coordinated with the music. The music being played was a swing tune, so Roy decided to show her how to spin. He chuckled to himself. It was funny to see the woman who was always so calm at work suddenly be so flustered.

Roy spun Riza out, still holding onto her hand. She began to spin back into him, just as they had been practicing. Suddenly, Roy's impulses took over. Being the man that he was, he instinctively pulled a playboy move that he had done on so many other women, on so many other dates before. This was one of his flirting routines. As Riza spun back into him, he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and with the other…grabbed her butt.

'_Shit…' _he thought, just realizing what he had just done.

Quick as a flash, Riza pulled out a gun from a leg holister under her dress and had it under his chin. How could he be so stupid? He should have remembered that she wasn't just another woman. This was _Riza_, his hard-core First Lt., and there were bound to be consequences.

"Watch your hands Roy!" Riza yelled, clicking the safety off her gun.

"I'm sorry, it was an accident!" Roy replied in his defense, now raising his hands over his head.

"No, an accident is my finger slipping on the trigger!" Riza yelled sternly.

"Aw, come on. You wouldn't kill me in this lovely restaurant, now would you?" Roy asked, smirking at her while his hands were still raised above his head.

Riza shoved the gun deeper into his chin, as if to say 'yes, I would,' but then she did something totally unexpected. Lowering her gun, she took a step back and then slapped Roy in the face. Putting her gun back into her leg holster, Roy stood there on the dance floor, dumbstruck. He was expecting a gunshot, a kick to the ribs, or something else that was equally painful. But a slap to the face? Totally out of the blue.

Riza then turned on her heel and began walking back to the table.

Snapping back to reality, Roy chased after her.

"Hawkeye, Hawkeye, wait! Riza, I'm sorry!" Roy said, finally catching up to her. He knew he shouldn't have done that. Pulling a stunt like that on Riza was a no-no. "Riza, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. I won't-"

"Roy, I'm not just another woman you can flirt with and then take home." Riza said angrily. She knew how Roy acted around women. She also knew that he saw dating as a game and didn't respect how women felt about him. With eyes aflame, she continued. "We've known each other long enough now that you should know that."

"Riza, I'm really sorry. I didn't have any intention of doing anything like that." he said, taking her hand. "It was just a reflex-"

"Which it shouldn't be!"

Roy cringed when she yelled. He knew that Riza was right. "I wasn't thinking. Honestly, we've been through so much together. You're my best friend, my right hand woman, my…uh…conscience, which I'd be dead without. I was just goofing. I'd never do that to you." Roy said sincerely.

Riza looked at him, glaring. But when she did, her anger instantly melted. Roy had the sincerest and caring look on his face. And if she didn't believe what was written on his face, everything was said in his eyes. He really meant what he just said. Riza was about to reply, but was cut off as the band began playing the next song. It was a slow-pace one.

Roy grabbed Riza's other hand and looked deep into her amber eyes.

"I'm really sorry. One more dance. Please?" he asked smiling at her.

'_Out of all the years that I've known him, this is the first time I've ever seen Roy like this. There's no smirk, no suspicious twinkle in his eyes, no mask….'_ Riza thought.

She sighed. "Oh, alright."

They made their way back to the dance floor and took the traditional slow-dance pose. (boys' hands on the girls' hips and the girls' hands around the boys' shoulders.) As the music played, they began to sway slowly.

Minutes of silence echoed between the two as they listened to the music. Roy moved to look at Riza. The way the dim light reflected off her sandy-blond hair, the way that dress fit her so nicely…she was beautiful in mind, body and spirit. Why hadn't he ever felt this way about her?

'_God, I was such an ass to think I could do something like that... How could it not offend her? I know Riza better than that.'_ Roy thought, mentally scolding himself. _'I guess I really do think of woman as objects if I was stupid enough to do that to Riza.'_

Moving his head closer to her ear, Roy whispered to her. "Riza, I'm really, really sorry for what I did earlier. I was being stupid and immature."

Riza mentally agreed. _'That's right, you were.'_ she thought. But even as she thought that, she knew she couldn't stay mad at him. Riza had known Roy long enough to know that he meant what he had said.

"It's okay. I forgive you, just don't do it again, Or else you'll have more to worry about than a slap in the face." Riza said, smiling up at him.

Roy looked at her smile and his stomach flipped. That's when he knew. He never had butterflies around other women. He never really wanted to get to know them. And he never gazed at them like he did at Riza. _'Could I be in love with Riza Hawkeye?'_

Smiling back at her, they returned to holding each other, and danced the rest of the night away.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Two and a half weeks later, Roy was still on cloud nine. In fact, he was in such a good mood that it was seriously freaking everyone out. Over the course of 18 days since the 'date', Roy had surprised everyone by coming into work early, actually doing his paper work, cleaning the office, and even, volunteering to look at Hughes' new pictures of his daughter Elicia.

"Dude, what's up with the Chief?" Havoc asked, glancing at the Colonel, who had just happily skipped into the room carrying a larger handful of uncompleted paperwork.

"I don't know…He's been acting like this ever since his date with the First Lt." replied Breda, who was standing in front of the desk next to Havoc.

"Do you think something happened?" Havoc asked again, taking a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it.

Fuery, who was previously filing some papers, chimed into the conversation. "I don't think so," he said. "The First Lt. seems just as freaked out about Mustang's mood swing as we do."

Just then, Hawkeye and Falman walked in, carrying some papers. Hawkeye was sighed, obviously tired.

"Sir, wait up…" she said with exhaustion in her voice.

As she stepped in, Havoc decided to risk getting shot to solve the mystery of Mustang's mood swing.

"Hawkeye, any idea of what's gotten into the Colonel? Did something happen on your date?" he asked with eagerness. Havoc was hoping for some gossip.

"No, I don't know why he's acting like this. And it wasn't a date Havoc." Riza replied, glaring at him.

What Riza had told Havoc was true. She really didn't know what had gotten into Roy. When she had spare time, she occasionally wondered if he _was_ acting happy because of their get-together. True, it was a fun night, more fun then she had had in a long time, but Riza didn't think that anything significant had happened to make him act this way. _'Though,'_ she thought, _'he has been making an effort to **actually** dohis work and help me out…in fact, it's almost like he's stalking me. Maybe what I said had some effect on him. I mean, he **never** does his work. Maybe he just wants to make up for what he did, and in the process, realized that he enjoys working… Nah, what am I saying? This **is** the Colonel after all.'_

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Late that night, inside an abandoned warehouse, Kaese met with his men.

Sitting in a chair and leaning over a table, he glanced over various reports passed to him. Kaese expressed no emotion. His men had been in and out of their hideout all day, working to finish making preparations. It had been a little over two weeks since their group had sent out the invitations, and now they were organizing the replies that were sent back. Lust was right; so far about 95 of the State Alchemists had responded to the invitation, eager to find out when and where they could win the prize money. There were only a few who didn't seem interested. These alchemists would be the ones that Kaese was looking forward to meeting. These would be the smartest dogs of the pack, and would have to be dealt with on a whole separate plain.

As he finished reading what he thought was the last report, another one of his correspondents ran into the room, panting and carrying a sheet of paper.

"Sir, here's the last report." he said, handing him the paper.

Taking the report, he grunted, "So these are the Alchemists from Central? Hmmm….Interesting…."

Skimming the list of names, he immediately stopped at two of the "Dogs" who didn't respond. "Well, well, well…Looks like Miss Lust was right about these two. Colonel Roy Mustang and Edward Elric; known as the Flame Alchemist and the Fullmetal Alchemist. These are the two that she had warned us about, as well as took a particular interest in."

Turning to the man sitting next to him at the table, Kaese ordered, "Isaac, I want you to follow them. Lust said that these two _had_ to attend. Find a way to get them to come. Blackmail, bribery- just do anything to bring them here. Physical threats won't work on them. These men won't fear pain like the rest. After all, one of these guys is _Roy Mustang_, hero of the Ishbalan War." he said, spitting on the ground. He was especially looking forward to meeting Roy. "You'll have to find a weakness of some kind. Get creative if you have too." he finished.

"Yes Sir. I'll get on the train to Central with the boys tomorrow."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Two days later at the office, Roy was still in a good mood. Sitting at his desk, humming to himself, he stretched. He was on a roll; he had finished every stack of paperwork that Riza had handed to him so far. Taking a few moments to relax, he went through the few previous days events.

He realized how much free time he now had because his work was done. He now had time to eat lunch in the court yard, go home early, and even run errands with all the free time that wasn't spent doing his work. Of course, this was all because of one thing- or really, one person; Riza.

Riza walked in, instantly surprised that Roy was, once again, done with his work.

"Colonel, this is amazing! What's gotten into you? Not once have I had to take out my gun to get you to do your work." she said, surprised but calm as well.

"Ah, nothing really." he replied coolly. "I've just discovered something that's been a weight on my shoulders for a long time. And now I know how to deal with it." he said, looking at her and grinning.

Riza cocked an eyebrow at him. "Okay….Well, either way, you can go home now." she said, looking a little disappointed. "That was the last stack of paperwork you had to do, Sir. I have to say, this is so strange. My nights usually revolve around the office, trying to force you to get your stuff done. I guess because you're done, I'm now done too."

Walking over to his desk, she said, "I guess I'll turn in these papers for you." Smiling at him, she also added, "Colonel, I don't know what you discovered, but either way, I'm proud of you."

'_Aw,'_ Roy thought, _'she's proud of me. I guess doing my paper work has its benefits. But wait, I don't want to leave early! I just wanted to get my work done so Riza would be happy. Damn! Now because I actually worked, Riza doesn't have an excuse to stay here in the office. All I wanted to do is spend extra time with her. Hmmm….maybe I can change that.'_

As Riza was gathering up the papers, Roy stood up.

"Wait! Not so fast Hawkeye!" Roy said, surprised at his own sudden outburst. _'What am I doing?' _he thought.

"Sir?" Riza asked, with one eyebrow raised.

Roy looked around. He realized that he really wanted to stay with her. It had been fun following her all around the office today, and he didn't want it to end. Suddenly, Roy had an idea. It was childish, but it just might work. Reaching up, he reached behind her head and pulled out her barrette that held her hair up.

"Sir, what are you doing!" Riza asked, alarmed. Dropping the papers, she began fumbling with her long hair which had come cascading down out of the barrette.

Grabbing her jacket to stop her, Roy laughed. "Riza don't, it's much better like that." he said teasingly.

Riza immediately blushed, which she hadn't meant to do. _'Did I just blush? Why did I just blush? Okay, just look away. I can't let him see, or else Roy will tease me for the rest of the week about this. Why am I doing this now? This usually doesn't happen, especially in situations like this!'_

"Sir, that's not very funny. It's my decision as to what's better." she said, obviously flustered. She jerked away from his grasp, and looking down at the floor to hide her red face, busied herself with her hair. Roy noticed that she didn't put it back up, but she did move it out of her face.

Roy laughed again. He was having fun messing with his First Lieutenant. Usually he would have been scared of her, but she seemed less intimidating with her hair down.

Changing the subject while Riza regained her composure, Roy asked, "Did you drive here?"

"No Sir, I walked here today." she replied, still trying to hide the blush.

Roy suddenly became very macho like. "Then as a man, as well as your superior officer, it's my duty to escort you home." he said, striking a pose like Armstrong would.

Riza snorted as she tried to cover up her laugh. "Sir, what's the matter with you? You've been acting strange for the past two weeks. When I slapped you, I hope I didn't rattle your brains."

"Oh no, I'm not crazy or anything. Like I said, I just realized something that I had bottled up for a long time." he replied. _'Yeah, like that I think I'm in love with you.'_ he thought. Ever since the date/work dinner, Riza had been the only thing on Roy's mind. He now accompanied her wherever she went, talking to her about her past, things she liked, and now he wanted to top it all off by walking her home.

She eyed him suspiciously. '_I wonder what he realized…'_ she thought. _'He's never asked to walk home with me before, and he knows I can protect myself. I guess I wouldn't mind the company though.'_ Giving in, Riza said, "Okay, let's go."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

On the way home, the two talked constantly, telling each other funny stories about when they were training in the military.

"After that, we couldn't eat in the mess hall for weeks!" exclaimed Roy, laughing at the memory.

It had taken them much longer to get to Riza's home than it normally would have. It was dark now. Roy had insisted on taking a 'short cut' through the park to see the changing color of the leaves.

Now at her doorstep, Roy had just said something to make Riza laugh. _'God she's pretty when she smiles.'_ he thought. Unknowingly, Roy blushed. He didn't realize that he was until Riza put her hand on his forehead with a concerned look in her eyes.

"Are you okay Sir? You're all flushed." Riza asked.

Taken by surprise, Roy replied, "Yes, I'm alright. And I told you; after work I'm not 'Sir', I'm just Roy." He grabbed and held her hands and looked into her eyes.

Roy smiled when Riza blushed and looked down. It seemed that she was doing this a lot lately…

"Listen, Riza…I'm sorry again for what happened on our dinner date."

It was now or never. Roy was convinced that he was falling for Riza. He had been thinking all about it on the way to her house. But first, he needed to test one thing.

"It wasn't a dinner da-"

"I'm sorry about then, but I need to know something. For the past two weeks it's all I've been able to think about. I'm not sorry for what I'm about to do now because I really mean it." he said.

Before Riza could say anything, he bent down and kissed her on the lips. For a moment, the two stood still, embraced and lip-locked as the world spun around them. Roy bashfully pulled away, blushing. Now he knew. That kiss had so much feeling to it, as though the world could have melted around them. Roy had dated a lot of women before, and had always kissed them, but none of those kisses had felt like this. He usually was cool and collected about such things, but not now. Now he felt like a boy going out on his first date. And now he knew that his suspicions were true. He was in love with his First Lieutenant. But how did Riza feel about him?

Pulling away slowly, Riza looked down at the ground, blushing ten shades of red. She was about to look up, when they were interrupted by Hayate's barking. They both jumped.

"I guess that's my cue to go." Riza said quickly. She reached down to her pocket and Roy flinched, expecting her gun to come flying out. However, all she did was pull out her house keys.

Opening the door, Riza quickly jumped inside. After turning around and staring at each other with sparks flying in the air, Riza finally spoke. "Roy…Did you-"

Roy quickly cut her off. "I'm sorry, I...I don't know what came over me. It's just that since the dinner…"

She looked up and smiled at him. "It's okay. Just don't tell anybody at work." she said shyly.

A few moments of silence danced between the two before Riza spoke again. "I had a fun time walking with you today."

Roy grinned shyly. "Yeah, me too." Lifting an arm and scratching the back of his head, he asked, "Can I expect that you won't drive again tomorrow? You'll definitely need my protection again if you do." he smirked at her.

Riza chuckled. "Yeah, because everyone knows that I don't carry four guns with me at all times." she said sarcastically, chuckling. "I would like that."

"Great! I'll be sure to get all of my paperwork done early so we can walk through the park again. I hear that there's going to be a band playing in the gazebo tomorrow."

The two chuckled some more.

"Good night Roy." Riza said, closing the door. But before she did, Riza stepped back out and walked towards Roy. She then stood up on the tips of her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"Good night Riza." He said softly, smiling and rubbing his cheek before she closed the door.

Roy stood on her stoop for a few more moments shocked, before turning down the street. As he began walking, he started to hum a tune and added a little bounce to his step. Roy was giddy. He was in love –truly in love– and it seemed that Riza had felt the same way_. 'Whatever,'_ he thought. _'Either way, I just kissed my First Lt. and lived to tell the tale!_ _This is kind of strange. We've been friends for years, and just now we're becoming more than just friends. I guess it would only seem natural, but I'm not used to this feeling.' _

Now skipping down the street, Roy was also snapping his fingers and making little fireworks as he walked. He was on cloud nine.

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

When all the flames had gone out and Roy had left, the street was quiet and empty. Or so it seemed. Out of the shadows, a man stepped out. It was Isaac, the man who Kaese had sent to Central to follow Roy and Ed. He was grinning maliciously. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a walkie-talkie. He flicked on its switch.

"I think I've found a weak spot."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Riza and Roy had been taking regular walks after work now. True, it had been only three days since 'the kiss,' but it felt like weeks. Roy now followed Riza everywhere she went, and she did the same for him, which wasn't too unusual. She always followed him to make sure he got his work done. They hadn't spoken about what took place on her doorstep because it was just too deep for words. She didn't know if the other members of their group had noticed a change yet. If they were caught together like this, then they both could get in serious trouble.

Riza had just closed the door as Roy walked down the street. She leaned back against it, listening to his footsteps fade into the night. He hadn't tried to kiss her again. She suspected that he didn't want to press his luck. Riza knew that what had happened between them shouldn't have taken place. But when he kissed her…there was something unspeakable there behind it. She was now in love with Roy. Or rather, had always had been and just denied it.

Walking into the kitchen, Riza put down her bag and abruptly stopped. Something was wrong. She may have been feeling giddy about walking with the Colonel, but she wasn't as distracted as to not to keep a cool head. Where was Hayate? He was always running to the door when she came home, even if it was late. Quietly walking into the living room, she abruptly stopped when she saw him sprawled on the floor with a fuzzy dart sticking out of his butt. Someone had drugged him.

Something sounded behind her from the closet. Whirling around, she grabbed her gun and pointed it at a man who jumped out of the closet. Immediately shooting two bullets at her attacker, one hit the man in the shoulder and one shattered the lamp behind him. Yet, he continued to charge at her, waving a bat, despite that he was heavily spraying blood all over the floor.

Aiming at him again, more crashes sounded behind her. Spinning on her heel, she saw three more men jump out from behind furniture and other hiding spots. Remembering her original attacker, she spun around and dodged a blow from his bat while kicking him in the stomach. This sent him flying towards her other attackers.

"You'll pay for that, you wench." one of the men said, spitting on the ground.

Isaac now spoke. "Why don't you come with us, First Lieutenant Hawkeye? We don't want to hurt you. You see, we have orders to bring you to our boss. He's very curious to meet you. Let's make this easy, shall we?"

'_Who are these men? What do they want from me?'_ Riza quickly thought.

"Why do you need me?" she asked, pulling up her gun.

The four men laughed. The man who Riza had shot, now holding his limp arm, answered her question. "We sent a letter a few weeks ago to your good buddy Roy Mustang. We noticed that he wasn't interested. That made our boss very angry. So, we've decided to send him another invitation. This time, there'll be more at stake than prize money for him."

Riza thought quickly, remembering the Alchemist Games invitation. _So these were the guys who sent it_! It was a trap after all. And now they wanted to use her has a hostage to get Roy to come. What was their real plan? Riza decided not to think about that now. Either way, she wasn't going to let them take her to use against Roy.

Pulling out a second gun, she aimed it at two of the men and shot, peppering bullets into the wall. One of the men, expecting this, dodged her bullets and charged at her. The other wasn't so lucky. A few of the bullets hit him right in the chest. He collapsed, dead.

"Leave it to Mustang to have a girlfriend that knows how to fight! Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way!" Isaac yelled, laughing at the same time.

The man who dodged her bullets ran at her, baring his teeth while swinging a pipe at her. She dropped one of her guns and caught the pipe in her hand. Losing her balance, he pushed her back until she was cornered against the wall, still holding onto the pipe.

The man, who she could now see was Ishbalan, pressed his face close to hers. "You know, you're very pretty. It's too bad you're a Dog of the Military. However, the military isn't the place for a woman."

Regaining composure, she turned her gun to his stomach. Quickly noticing this, he bumped her wrist as she shot, making the bullet graze his side.

The man howled in pain and stepped back far enough to give Riza room to escape. As she wriggled aside, the two other men greeted her. The one who she had shot earlier ran at her and grabbed her waist, tackling her to the floor.

They both fell, and Riza lost hold of her gun. It skid just out of her reach, and the other rebel kicked it under the couch. She was weaponless.

Rolling away, she jumped up, only to find that the man she had grazed in the stomach grabbed her and wrapped an arm around her neck. "Aw, come on. We're really nice guys. You should be a better hostess."

Elbowing him in the ribs, he let go of her and Riza ran towards where she dropped her first gun. Isaac foresaw this and got to it before she could. He bent down and picked it up before she could reach it. Pointing it at her, Riza stopped dead in her tracks.

"You really like these toys don't you?" Isaac said, looking at the military-style gun. He began looking at it curiously, pretending he had dropped his guard and was distracted.

Riza took the bait and charged at him, yelling. Unfortunately, Isaac was saw this was coming. As she charged at him, he dodged Riza and countered her attack by punching her in the ribs. Riza, winded, kneeling on the floor, clutching her stomach.

"I told you, we didn't have to do this the hard way…" Isaac said, signaling to the man with the stomach wound to grab hold of Riza.

The man walked over, clutching his side, and then put Riza in a chokehold.

While she was struggling to get free, the man who had punched her walked over to her coffee table where they had left a bag. Reaching into it, he took out a clear bottle and a syringe.

"Don't worry. This will only make you take a little nap. It won't hurt."

Riza continued to struggle against the man's grip, but he had a good chokehold on her neck. She was beginning to see spots and get dizzy. The man walked over, holding the syringe, and grinned.

"Nighty-night princess." He maliciously grinned, jamming the needle into left her shoulder.

Riza swayed on the spot. Her eyes went out of focus and she then fell unconscious. Isaac, who gave her the drug, threw her limp body over his shoulder.

The three men quickly walked out of the house with Riza and the man she had killed slung over their shoulders. They had to get out of there quickly; somebody would have noticed by now and would have called the local guards.

Before the man carrying Riza left the house, he turned around and took a crumpled-up piece of paper out of his pocket, throwing it on the floor. Grinning, he turned and left with others, having the blanket of night to cover their escape with their hostage in hand.

* * *

Dun-dun-done! Hah, a cliff-hanger! Sort of… 

So, what did you think? This is the first time I've EVER written romance, let alone any story, so sorry if it seemed a little strange. But hey, I'm trying. Also, I couldn't help but laugh when writing the kidnapping scene. **Fuhrer Allie** was helping with writing parts of it and editing, and pointed out this question; "Who the hell uses a pipe to attack someone who has multiple guns?"

I had to agree with her, but if I had put in guns, then the fight would have been over too soon, and as **Fuhrer Allie** stated, itwould be "a big-ass mess to clean up".

Anyway, if you have comments or suggestions, then send your reviews! I love reviews! Just don't flame me. I'm afraid of fire…Seriously. In science class last year, I had to conquer my fear of matches for lighting the bunsen burners.

Thanks for reading!

-Fullmetalfan


	4. Chapter 4: Things Set In Motion

YAY! Our school just released us from our prison, and now we're on SUMMER BREAK! (crowd cheers) That means I have to work six days a week now…but even though I have to actually move around, my pain turns into work, which turns into money! YAY!

Anyway, so how ya'll doing? Thanks a whole bunch for all of the reviews! I love you guys! Your support inspires me to write! That and the threats from **Fuhrer Allie** every time I see her…but anyway, on to the next chapter! I'll ramble on about random stuff at the end. Also, my story_is_ based off the manga, so there are character spoilers for those of you who refuse to read.

Oh, and on another note, this chapter is dedicated to **Fuhrer Allie**, my editor and friend, because her favorite character makes a star appearance. It's not too hard to guess who it is. Her name is based after him.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FMA. I never will, so you don't have to sue me.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Things Set in Motion**

**The Alchemist Games**

Lust sat with her eyes closed, deep in thought inside the Central military conference room. She drummed her fingers on the table slowly, waiting. The room was dark, with nothing but beams of moonlight shinning through the windows to enhance the room. No one could know that her companions were meeting her there tonight.

A few minutes later, Envy, Gluttony, and Wrath (also known as Fuhrer King Bradley) slowly strode into the room casually. The meeting of Homunculi had now commenced.

"So Lust, how goes the plans for the _Alchemist Games_?" asked Envy, pulling out a chair and sitting down. Gluttony went over to the corner and sat on the floor. He began to listen quietly.

Lust smirked and raised her hand to eye level to look at her fingernails. "Fantastic. Our rebellion boys are doing _everything_ I ask without any flaws. They're eager to get revenge on the military, so they're determined to make sure our plans stay right on schedule."

"Has everyone responded?" asked Wrath as he walked over to the window. He turned his back to the other homunculi and stared at the moon.

"No," Lust answered, "but our cover-ups are taking care of that tonight."

"What are they doing to get the resistant alchemists to come?" asked Envy.

"I left the decision to them. I guess they've decided to take hostages- "

Envy interrupted. "Really? Hehehe, not a bad plan."

Wrath spoke up and added to the conversation. "I concur. Love is the greatest human weakness."

Lust laughed quietly. When she was done, she swiveled her chair around and looked at Wrath.

"Wrath, out of the participants who didn't respond, two are in your district in Central."

"Let me guess…Edward Elric and Roy Mustang."

"Yes. After the two receive word that their friends were taken, can you make sure they're _more_ than willing to come? I'm not worried about the Fullmetal Brat; I know that he'll come as soon as he finds out that the Rockbell girl was taken."

Envy looked up. "How do you know that the rebels will decide to kidnap her?"

Lust flipped her hair casually. "It's not too hard to figure out. She's a good choice because they've been friends since childhood. Anyway, like I said, I'm not worried about Fullmetal, but I _am_ worried that Mustang might not buy into it."

Wrath continued to sit and calmly said, "Who is going to be Mustang's hostage?"

"I'm pretty sure that they're going to take his First Lt., Riza Hawkeye." Lust paused and looked at the Fuhrer. "Why, do you think that he won't come?"

Wrath grinned evilly under his moustache. "No, he'll come alright."

Lust looked at him with a slightly puzzled look on her face.

"Because Mustang is a character of interest, I've been watching him and his pack for a while now. They're very close- close enough to break military regulations. He'll come for sure. And if the need arise, I'll offer some words of encouragement."

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Driving his car, Roy was not in a very good mood. He had one hand on the wheel, and with the other, he shielded his eyes from the rising sun as he turned the corner. It was early—much too early—in Roy's opinion. He wasn't used to interrupting his sleep patterns, especially for work.

The source of Roy's irritation this morning came from his best friend, Lt. Colonel Maes Hughes, from the Investigation Department. Hughes called Roy at four in the morning with an urgent message that he needed to get downtown right away. Maes refused to tell Roy what was wrong over the phone, but he did say that there was an emergency and that he should rush over quickly. Something had happened overnight. Roy figured that whatever had happened was really bad. In fact, whatever had happened was bad enough to freak Hughes out, because, for once, he wasn't happy-go-lucky, and when he spoke over the phone, his voice quivered with urgency…and a bit of fear. This worried Roy.

In the car, Roy continued to drive while reading directions given to him by Hughes over the phone. He started to think about what was going on downtown.

'_I wonder what happened… Maybe Scar found another alchemist or something…' _Roy yawned. He was really tired. _'I'll just find and ask Riza when I get there.'_ he thought. _'She'll have all the facts.'_

The thought of Riza lightened Roy's mood.

He turned down the street after reading the directions he scribbled on a piece of spare paper.

Roy didn't quite know where he was going, but with each passing turn he made, the area became increasingly familiar, and the pit already in his stomach began to sink lower and lower with dread.

Pressing the gas pedal down to the floor, beads of sweat had begun to form on his forehead. He frantically scanned the area, and looked back down at the directions, hoping that there would be one more turn to whisk him away from where he was sure he was heading. He could feel it in his bones.

"No…Please don't be where I think I'm heading…It can't be Riza, it just can't be. Please don't let it be her." Roy muttered frantically.

Swerving his car to avoid hitting the crowd and hitting the brakes at the same point in time, Roy had finally arrived at the scene. Panicking and dreading the worst, Roy literally jumped out of his car. He knew exactly where he was now. This was where he had dropped Riza off last night. This crowd had gathered in front of Riza's house.

Pushing through the crowd, Roy dodged police cars, reporters and civilians until he broke free of the mob and stood in front of her door, which hung off it's hinges at an awkward angle.

"No, Riza! Please don't be dead, please don't be dead…I don't think I could live without you…"

Hughes, who was standing nearby, giving orders to some investigators, spotted Roy racing to the front door. He quickly excused himself and ran to intercept him.

Hughes jumped in front of Roy just before he reached the door. He knew his best friend was really worried when he could hear muttering under his breath.

"Roy, stop!" Hughes said, putting his hands out to block the entrance.

Roy didn't even look up. His eyes only remained on the front door.

"Listen Roy, it's really bad in there, and we really don't know what happened-"

"Is she…dead?" Roy interrupted in almost a whisper. His heart was racing with fear, and he was panting.

Hughes took a step back, sighed, and put one hand on the back of his head.

"Actually, no. We don't think she's dead."

"What do you mean 'don't think' she's dead!" Roy outburst.

"Well, you see, there's a lot of blood in there…but no body. We've also gotten word from the other half of our Investigation Department that across town, Winry Rockbell has also gone missing."

"What! Maes, let me through!" Roy ordered angrily, taking a step forward.

Hughes stepped aside. He knew Roy was really upset, and didn't want to risk getting third degree burns.

Roy jumped up the steps and walked into the living room, abruptly stopping. His eyes darted rapidly around the room, taking in every detail. There was blood everywhere.

Hughes followed after Roy and stopped a bit behind him to give Roy his space.

Roy focused on the carpet, his chin almost touching his chest in concentration.

"Where is she? Is this her blood?" he said quietly as everyone else in the room continued to gather evidence and take pictures.

Hughes felt a surge of pain for Roy and his face softened. He knew Roy and Riza had always been close. In fact, the two were so close that he had seriously asked Roy if he would ever consider taking their relationship further than in the office. He had asked Roy this question a long time ago, and of course, Roy had said 'no'. But recently, based on information that Hughes had squeezed out of Havoc, he thought that Roy had suddenly had a change of heart.

"Roy, listen," he said, putting a hand on Roy's shoulder. "I'm sorry. We don't know if this is Riza's blood, or even where she is. All that we know is that she's gone, and whoever did this had planned it. We found Hayate earlier with a tranquilizer dart in his butt." Hughes said.

Roy continued to stare at the blood. _'Riza can't be dead. No… not after the last few weeks we've spent together. Damn it! I finally find true love, and then it just gets snatched away from me! Why would someone take her anyway? Who would do this?'_ Roy screamed in his head. He thought for a moment, and then realized the answer to his last question. _'They took her to get at me. There's no other reason to harm her. They did this to-'_

Hughes interrupted the silence and Roy's thoughts. "Roy, are you and Riza…um…how should I ask this without getting burned…?"

Roy knew what Hughes was asking without him ever asking the question. "Yes," he said turning to look at Hughes.

"Do you love her?"

Roy sadly smiled. "More than anything or anyone I've ever known before. I was a fool not to have noticed it sooner. I've had feelings for Riza for a long time now, and all I've done is denied it."

Hughes smiled softly at Roy while thinking, _'I knew it! I always knew they would get together! I'll finally get to be the best man! Now we just have to get Riza back to have the wedding…'_

"Don't worry Roy. We'll do everything we can to figure out what happened to Riza. After all, she's my friend too." Hughes opened his mouth to say more, but another military officer came over and interrupted their conversation with a question for their Lt. Colonel.

Roy turned back to the blood, his arms dangling limply at his sides. He felt terrible and heartbroken, as if his very soul had been ripped out and torn in two. Without Riza, he now felt incomplete.

Absorbed in his thoughts, the movement of a figure suddenly caught the corner of his eye.

Fuhrer King Bradley, leader of the military and president/dictator of Amestris, walked over to Roy from the other room.

"Hello Mustang. I'm sorry to hear that this had happened. I know you and your First Lt. were close companions. I also know that there's probably little that I can say to make you feel better, but I just wanted you to know that I'm sending everyone I can spare to investigate her disappearance."

Roy turned and half-heartily saluted. "Thank you Sir," he said solemnly.

The Fuhrer stood silent next to Roy for a few minutes before turning and walking towards the table in the middle of the room. He stopped, and picked up a photograph. The glass that protected it was shattered and chipped from being knocked over. He looked at it, and then took a piece of crumpled paper out of his pocket and placed it on top of the picture. Walking back over, the Fuhrer handed both objects to Roy.

Looking at Roy, he said, "You know, it's the people we see everyday that give our lives meaning and purpose. We must remember that, and hold onto each one with the little time that we have. Mustang, I know she means a lot to you."

Roy, realizing that the Fuhrer was hinting that he knew about his and Riza's relationship, started protest and deny the Fuhrer's previous statement. However, before Roy could ever say anything, Bradley raised his hand to silence him.

"It's okay Colonel. I know about you two because my secretary, whose name I cannot remember, saw you two having dinner about three weeks ago. There's no need to deny anything, as long as it doesn't affect your work," he said, smiling.

"Thank you Sir. I'm sorry." Roy replied, lowering his gaze to the ground, embarrassed. He was quite surprised. The Fuhrer knew about his secret, and didn't care at all.

"Now's not the time for apologies. Listen up Mustang. Riza isn't dead."

Roy's head snapped up. "What!"

"She isn't dead. And because she means a lot to you, I've decided not to stop you if you want to take matters into your own hands. The paper I gave you may help you get her back. I found it earlier in the kitchen under the table. I didn't show the Investigation Department what it says because I figured that you might want to do this on your own. The next move is yours, Mustang. Bring Hawkeye home. Besides, it would cost too much to find and train a new sniper as good as her," he said, chuckling.

Roy suddenly had a new hope in his eyes. Saluting to Bradley, he then ran over to him and violently shook his hand. "Thank you very, very much Sir! I'm going to bring her back. You won't regret doing this! Thanks again Sir!"

The Fuhrer laughed once more and then left Roy to read the crumpled clue.

Moving to a secluded corner of the room, Roy unfurled the parchment and read it. In scratchy handwriting, it simply said;

_Participate in the Alchemist Games if you wish to see your girlfriend ever again._

_Meet us at the train station tomorrow morning at one A.M._

_Come alone or she dies. _

After reading the note, Roy crushed the paper in his hand. How _dare _they use _his _Riza to blackmail him! His earlier suspicions were right; whoever was doing this was using Riza to get to him. In his mind, he was angrier then he had ever been before in his entire life. The people who planned this would pay...That he was sure of. Roy didn't care about the true purpose of the Alchemist Games. Whoever did this wanted Roy to participate for some reason, but he didn't care. Roy only wanted to rescue Riza.

After a moment, Roy realized that he was clenching his fists. The hand that held the broken photograph was now bleeding from one of the shards of glass. He had completely forgotten about it. Wiping his hand on his jacket, Roy brought it up and looked at it. Tears of rage flooded his eyes. It was a picture of Riza and Roy at their last military picnic. They were both leaning against a tree, petting Hayate together. Roy remembered when that picture was taken.

He had to get Riza back.

Pocketing the picture, Roy stormed outside. "Like hell I'm going to let them do this to her," he muttered to no one in particular.

Hughes, seeing Roy running out the door, rushed to follow him. "Roy, Where are you going!"

Without looking back, Roy simply threw the piece of paper over his shoulder.

"That's where!" he yelled angrily. "That's where I'll be. I'm going away for a few days, and I'm bringing her back. See you soon Hughes."

'_Yes, that's where I'm going. I'm going to participate in those damn Alchemist Games, or whatever the hell they're called, and I'm going to save Riza. I'm bringing her back no matter what.'_

* * *

WOOT! Another chapter down! What'd you think? 

Hehehe, **Fuhrer Allie** and I were laughing about the part in this chapter where Bradley was explaining to Roy how he knew how Roy felt about Riza. I just couldn't remember what his secretary's name was (because Juliet Douglas doesn't exist in the manga) and just decided to fill the blank with, "whose name I cannot remember." I know it totally killed the serious moment, but it's all good. Besides, according to chapter "whose number I cannot remember", his secretary-thing is a guy…

Sorry for the randomness about my job at the beginning…but I thought that you all should be enlightened with my logic, which is this:

(also, because fanfic doesn't allow you to put symbols in your story, just _pretend_ that the dashes are equal signs...)

Job - pain

Pain - work

Work - money

Money - happiness

Happiness - FMA manga and DVDs, oh, and gas for my car too

So yeah! Send your comments, reviews, questions, ideas, or whatever! But sorry to everyone, I think I'll wait to update my story until I have at least 40 reviews…

Thanks again to the new (and old) readers who read and reviewed my story! You should each get a cookie!

-Fullmetalfan


	5. Chapter 5: The Rescue Mission Begins

Okay, I'll keep this note simple!

**ALERT: **For those of you who didn't know, **my** **story is based off the Fullmetal Alchemist manga!** In it, Fuhrer King** Bradley isn't Pride, he's Wrath!** I know, it's a weird switch, but that's how it is. If you want to check it out for yourself, go to or pick up the 7th book from your local bookstore!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist…I'm not that cool, but I have dreams…

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Rescue Mission Begins**

**The Alchemist Games**

As Roy stepped out of the shadows and walked into the train station, his footsteps echoed across its vast emptiness. It was deathly quiet at that time of hour, with nothing but a single lamp near the ticket booth the chase away the darkness and reveal how empty the place actually was. From the entrance, to Roy's right and left, was the train corridor that paralleled the tracks. In front of him stood the only ticket booth that handed out passes and announced when the trains were to arrive and depart each day.

Roy walked deeper into the station and reached into his pocket. Pulling out his golden State Alchemist's pocket watch, he flicked the top open and glanced at the time. It was 12:59 in the morning.

Looking down each end of the corridor, Roy pulled out one of his gloves and tugged it onto his right hand. He didn't know exactly _what_ he was waiting for, but he did know that he had to be there if he wanted to get Riza back. Either way, he didn't want to be taken by surprise.

Roy looked again at his pocket watch and walked over to the ticket booth to stand under the lamppost. It was now 1:00 in the morning. He was impatient, and eager to have something happen to bring him out of this waiting stage. What was going to happen? Would he meet someone here? Would they bring Riza? As a few more minutes ticked by, Roy turned these questions over in his mind.

Suddenly, Roy heard footsteps behind him and instinctively pulled his glove tighter onto his hand. Jerking around, prepared to snap, Roy stopped when he saw the silhouette of a small kid approaching. As Edward walked towards him and the light that he was standing under, Roy relaxed and lowered his arm.

Running his hand through his raven-black hair; Roy sighed and said, "Oh, hey Fullmetal, it's just you."

Ed scowled. "What do you mean it's _just_ me?" he replied irritably.

"I thought that you might have been someone else." Roy replied causally, shrugging his shoulders.

The two stood side-by-side for a few moments in silence, glaring at opposite ends of the ground.

Ed finally spoke. "So I take it you're here for the stupid Alchemist Games or whatever?"

Roy nodded. "Yup."

Ed continued. "Why would you want to be here? I had the impression that you thought yourself above games. Do you want the money or something?"

Roy shot a glare at Ed. "No Fullmetal. I'm only here for the same reason you are."

"What! You're here to save Winry too?" Ed questioned, obviously shocked and confused.

Roy's mouth opened and he stared at Ed in disbelief. It was obvious that he hadn't gotten the memo that Riza had been taken too. After a few moments, Roy regained enough composure to respond. "No! She's your girlfriend, not mine! I'm here because…" he yelled, trailing off, realizing that he had just said more than he had intended to.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Ed yelled defensively and taking a step back from Roy. Suddenly he pointed at him. "Hey, wait a minute…_do_ _you_ have a girlfriend?"

Roy rubbed the back of his head.

Ed sent Roy a sly glance. "What ever happened to the 'playboy of the military'? I never figured that you'd have a long term girlfriend; especially one that you'd care about. So who is it? Is it someone I'd know-"

"Edward, stop it." Roy said seriously, cutting Ed off.

"But Colonel, I just don't see you going out of your way to save-"

"Shut up Fullmetal." Roy angrily ordered, positioning his hand into 'snapping mode'. "If you have to know, they took First Lt. Hawkeye. Just like they kidnapped Winry, they kidnapped Riza too," he said, with a subtle blush now creeping up his neck. Roy was losing his cool from waiting, and Ed wasn't making his growing headache any better.

Ed's eyes widened. Even though he was blushing now too, he was shocked. "They took the First Lt. too? How! I mean, who would be crazy enough to even _try _and take her? Who _exactly_ are these guys?"

"I don't know. But whoever they are, they deserve to burn. The only reason I'm actually going to this thing is to get Riza back. I'll worry about what they're real intentions are later." Roy said, looking into the pitch-black abyss that was the train tunnel.

"And I'm going to get Winry back."

Roy glanced at Ed, noticing that he suddenly looked guilty. "She's been through enough because of Al and me. The only reason they took her was because they wanted me to come…"

Roy nodded and looked back into the darkness. He understood Ed's guilt. He too had blamed himself for Riza's kidnapping.

Silence echoed between them as their blushes faded.

Suddenly, a roaring thunder echoed down from the tunnel, disrupting the awkward silence. A beam of light began to widen and grew brighter with each passing second.

Ed and Roy looked at each other. It was strange that a train would be running this late…unless this is what they were waiting for.

The two alchemists stood silently and watched as a red and black rusty train pulled up into the station, creaking as the gears steadily moved.

As it slowed its descent, Roy and Ed flinched as the brakes sparked, shrieked, and squealed to stop the train. Roy eagerly watched the train car window to catch a glimpse of who - or what - was running it. Ed didn't even try to see. If he stood up on his tiptoes, he knew that Roy would just make fun of him later for being so short. Unfortunately, there were no lights on in any of the cabins and Roy didn't see anything.

As the train slowed to a stop, Roy finally saw movement outside of one of the cabins. Someone was coming out of the nearest train car door.

Hopping down the train's car steps, a man with a tan body and muscular build exited and looked around until he saw Roy and Ed. He was dressed in black pants and a brown t-shirt with a white stripe going horizontally across his chest. He then grinned and waved at the two.

Roy suddenly snapped. Striding over to the mystery man, Roy pulled back his sleeves as Ed quickly hurried to keep up. Roy was pissed. Who was this man to causally come out of the train and smile at them like everything was all right?

"Hello there Mr. Mustang and Mr. Elric! You're the last two to be picked up on our stops tonight. Allow me to introduce myself. My name's Isaac, and-"

Roy had finally reached Isaac, and cocked his arm back, clenching his gloved hand into a tight fist. Interrupting Isaac, Roy threw a punch at him, hitting him square in the jaw. Isaac fell down, surprised by Roy's sudden outburst of aggression. Roy quickly reached down and lifted him back up by the collar on his shirt.

"Where is she!" Roy demanded.

"Whoa, Colonel!" Ed yelled, watching from the sidelines, excited.

Isaac spat a bit of blood onto the floor and began to laugh. "A bit eager to fight, eh? Well, you're never going to get her back that way…Save your energy for the tournament," he said, chuckling.

"Colonel, he's right! Believe me, I've got a right mind to punch this guy in the face too, but- "

Roy cut off Ed's attempt to cool him down. "I'll ask you again. Where's Riza?" he said, jerking Isaac a bit.

Isaac looked at Roy and smiled with one eye twitching. "Don't worry. She's all nice and cozy at our base. We're taking good care of her, not that she deserves it. She put up a good fight yesterday though. We lost one of our men because of her, and a few were wounded."

Roy just continued to look at Isaac. Both were breathing heavily as Ed continued to watch, waiting to see what Roy would do. This was a treat for him. Usually _he _would have been the one to attack this guy, but Roy had beaten him to it.

"We're wasting time here. If you want to see your precious Riza, then you better put me down now or else you'll never see her again." Isaac said seriously.

"Mustang, come on. Let's just get on the train so we can beat the crap out of these guys when we get there!" Ed said, walking closer to the train.

Isaac began laughing again. "I thought that the Fullmetal brat was the one with the temper! Listen to the kid Mustang."

"Hey! Who you calling a kid-"

"Fullmetal, he's right- you're right. Let's just go." Roy said, grinding his teeth and roughly putting Isaac down. Walking towards the train, he stuck his hands into his pockets and looked down at the ground, avoiding eye contact. He was still angry.

Isaac straightened himself and followed the two onto the train.

"I guess now it begins…it sucks that my paid vacation has to be spent like this…" Roy muttered as he stepped into the train car and took the nearest seat next to the window. Ed followed Roy as he took a seat across from Roy, and positioned himself to take a nap. It was too dark in the car to see if anyone else was in there with them.

As soon as they were situated, Isaac waved and gave them a sarcastic smile before walking up the isle and entering the next train car.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As Ed slept, Roy stared out the window as the train sped up, heading wherever they were heading, until everything else was a blur. His mind wandered in an out of various thoughts, that all seemed to surround Riza.

"Just wait a little longer for me Riza. I'm coming." Roy muttered quietly to the darkness as the rumbling of the train overpowered his words so no one but Roy could hear them.

* * *

Well, there you go! There's chapter five! Sorry not much happened in this one, but I promise that the next chapters will be more exciting! 

Sorry about the Pride/Wrath confusion in the last chapter. I should have written in bold that there were character spoilers in my story. My bad!

When I was writing about the train part, all that I could think about was the Hogwarts train from Harry Potter…It seems like whenever I think about trains anyway, the only image that comes up is the Hogwarts train! But I made MY train rusty, so I guess it can't be the same because the one in Harry Potter is all shiny!

Thanks for all of your support! Your happy comments inspire me to continue writing and update faster!

Thanks for reading! Send in your reviews or questions! And thanks AGAIN **Fuhrer Allie** for editing my story! I'd have a lot of grammar errors if it weren't for you! (For those of you who didn't notice, I'm being forced to put her name somewhere at least ONCE per chapter in my intro or conclusion, just so she'll edit for me…That was the deal we made. I mean, I could have paid her money- or even in cookies, but no… she only wanted her name in the credits…)

-Fullmetalfan


	6. Chapter 6: The Truth Behind the Games

OMG I am soooooooo sorry that I didn't update sooner! (Hides from fans and angry readers.) I've been really busy with school and summer stuff, and now that I have free time in classes (preferably when I'm supposed to be taking notes...) I have time to write again.

Okay, so now that I've apologized, let's get onto the story! I've gotten a ton of reviews asking where's Riza? Is she okay? Oh, and I've also gotten a few asking where Winry is, so to answer all of your pending questions, here's chapter 6, which focuses our favorite female heroes! YAY!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own FMA, and unless Hiromu Arakawa spontaneously dies and gives me the rights to the greatest anime/manga on Earth, I never will. But I do own Kaese, Isaac, and anyone else that isn't in the series! Oh, and I don't own Jell-O either.

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Truth Behind the Games**

**The Alchemist Games**

When Riza regained consciousness, her mind was swirling in a gray fog. Shaking her head a bit to wake herself up, Riza peeled open her heavy eyelids to see where she was. Everything she saw was out of focus and blurry. Riza felt like she was underwater, and her body was made of Jell-O.

Squeezing her eyes tight, she tried again to see where she was. This time things were a little clearer, but not by much.

'_Where am I?_' the blonde sharpshooter thought as she scanned the room. Riza tried to lift her arm to rub her eyes, but found that she couldn't move. '_That's weird…_'

Riza tried to move the other arm, but the outcome was the same.

Blinking again, Riza's vision began to clear, and her eyes slowly came into focus. Now she could see where she was.

Riza found herself in a small, stone-laid cell with bars in front of her for a wall. On the other side of the bars was a hallway lit by dim florescent lights.

"Wait, what? Where am I?" she whispered loudly to herself.

Riza tried to move again, but failed and jerked back as she tried to walk forward. She then noticed that her arms were involuntarily above her head. Looking up, she saw that her hands were shackled to the stone wall.

"Oh no…no, no, no. This is bad…" Riza muttered.

'_Wait, what the hell happened? Where am I? Why am I here?' _she thought as she put the pieces together, now remembering parts of the fight from last night._ 'Oh…wait…I'm here because of…' _"Roy!"Riza yelled out loud. It was all coming back to her now. _'Last night those men said that they needed me because they wanted to meet with Roy…But never said why…hang on!'_ she gasped, remembering the red eyes she saw on one of her kidnappers. _'He was Ishbalan! Damn it…'_ she thought, banging herhead against the wall. _'If they're an Ishbalan rebel gang, then they're doing whatever it is that they're doing to get back at the military…' _she calculated as she continued banging her head against the wall. Hitting a sharp edge of stone, Riza gasped and bit her lip in pain as she mentally scolded herself.

Riza leaned her head against one of her raised arms. Taking a deep breath, she tried to find a happy, relaxing thought to ease her nerves. To her surprise, Roy popped into her head and she suddenly began to calm down. _'Well, that's a surprise…'_ Riza thought, and laughed to herself. Usually _Roy_ was the cause of her stress at work. But now that she was thinking about him, and remembering the last few days that they had spent together, Riza found herself becoming calmer. In addition, she also found that her stomach was doing flips at the thought of her superior officer.

'_This is so weird…I never used to think of Roy this way. I mean, I guess I've always loved him, but it was in a different way. Like the kind of love that you have for… a best friend. Well, maybe it was a little more than that, but still, he never seemed interested- besides the countless attempts to put me in a miniskirt. I guess it was only natural, after all of the time we've spent together over the years. But still, it's strange that I would begin to **really** like him now…and even after knowing that's it's against the rules…' _she admitted to herself as she became giddy. Now taking another deep breath to stop the rush of hormones, she quickly snapped back to reality when she heard footsteps echoing down the hall.

A man wearing a men's black tank top and brown baggy jeans walked past her cell, whistling as he flipped though the pages in his clipboard.

Shifting her weight nervously, Riza accidentally rattled one of her hand shackles.

The man stopped walking when he heard the sound. Riza held her breath as he looked at her and smiled.

"Well, well, well. Looks like one of our captives is awake! G'mornin' Pumpkin!" he said, walking back to her cell door and taking out a ring of keys.

As he tucked his clipboard under his arm, he began to fumble with the keys, trying to find the right one. Riza eyed him suspiciously. _'Who is this guy? I don't remember seeing him from last night…'_

"Ah, found it!" exclaimed the mystery man, holding up the right key. Unlocking the door, he stepped inside and walked towards Riza.

The two looked at each other in silence for a few moments before either spoke or moved. Suddenly, the man quickly reached up and grabbed Riza's chin. Jerking back in response, Riza hit the wall and cringed with pain as her head began to throb. With nowhere to go, she was forced to stand her ground.

Riza clenched her jaw as the 'mystery man' turned her head this way and that, inspecting her face. While he did this, Riza scanned him up and down, studying him. She took into account his red eyes and tan skin. _'He's Ishbalan as well…'_

Suddenly, his expression lightened and he let out an evil chuckle.

"You're cute- for being a Dog of the Military! I think you're probably the sexiest hostage here! Maybe if we were under different circumstances, I'd offer to buy you a drink…" he said, flipping though the papers attached to his clipboard.

'_What the hell does that have to do with anything!_' Riza thought as she glared at him with amber eyes. _'I wish that I had one of my handguns right now…'_

Continuing to flip through papers, the man glanced up at Riza, and noticed that she was giving him an evil eye. "Oh don't be like that. It was just a compliment," he said, still paying attention to his papers. "Ah, here we go," he said, stopping at one of the pages. He skimmed it over, and then began to read it out loud. "First Lt. Riza Hawkeye; originally stationed in the East, but recently positioned in Central under direct command of Colonel Roy Mustang. Served as a sniper in the Eastern Ishbalan Rebellion, granddaughter of…"

Riza's eyes widened as he continued to read parts of her personal file. She recognized every word that he was reading. _'How could he have gotten hold of my **confidential** military records? Those are only accessible to the higher ups!'_

Finally the man finished, paused, and then his face brightened. "So _you're_ Colonel Mustang's hostage! We must make sure to take _very_ good care of you," he said slyly.

Riza stared at him with a confused look on her face. _'What the hell is he talking about? Why would they take special care of me? And what did he mean by 'Mustang's hostage'?'_

The man continued, as if he had read her mind and the question that she was thinking. "You see, I'm _especially_ excited to meet your superior officer."

"Okay, hold it. Who are you, and what are you talking about?" Riza asked sternly.

"Oh, I totally forgot. It's rather rude of me to stand here babbling to you and not introduce myself. The name's Kaese," he said, bowing elegantly. "I'm the leader of this little operation," he said, waving his arm around as if to show off the dungeon.

"What operation?" Riza asked coolly, narrowing her eyes and cocking her head slightly to the side.

"Oh, why the Alchemist Games of course. You remember the invitation that the Colonel received about three weeks ago, don't you? Well, yeah, that was us."

'_I knew that thing was a fake!' _Riza exclaimed in her head. "So you're the reason that those men broke into my house, drugged my dog, and then attacked me!"

"Yeah, well, actually no. That wasn't my idea. That was Isaac's idea," Kaese said smoothly.

Riza scowled. "Damn it, stop acting so casual! What's really going on? Why did you send out invitations to all of the State Alchemists?" Riza asked in a demanding tone of voice.

"Hey, hey, hey, calm down Pumpkin! There's no need to get so pissed off…although, I guess you do have reason to be upset…we _did_ kidnap you after all. Okay, I suppose the least I could do is answer some of your questions," Kaese said, stroking the stubble on his chin.

Riza shot a demon glare at him.

"I guess your nickname isn't the 'Hawk's Eyes' for nothing…you were right. This isn't _just_ a friendly alchemy competition. Unfortunately for you, I don't think you need to know anymore than that at this point."

Riza's eye twitched. This guy was really starting to get on her nerves. "Okay, fine. Before, you called me 'Mustang's hostage'. What did you mean by that? Why did you _really_ kidnap me, and then what are you planning to do with me now?" Riza demanded.

"As you know, we kidnapped you to get Mustang to come. Oh, and you're not the only one. There are others here too. We needed to make sure that _all_ of the State Alchemists came, and this was the easiest way that we could think of to make sure that those who were... un-willing… to come decided to participate. It's as simple as that. And, well, I guess we don't plan on doing anything with you right now. You're just here for leverage," Kaese said, shrugging his shoulders, placing his hands on his hips, and shooting an evil grin towards Riza.

"You son of a bitch! You're insane!" Riza cried.

"Hey, shut up! Do you want to wake up the rest of the prisoners?" Kaese yelled at Riza, putting his face close to hers.

Riza glared at him, and then in an act of courage, spit in Kaese's eye.

"Ahhh!" he yelled, recoiling back and wiping the glob of spit from his face.

"When everybody finds out what you're really doing, then you're going to be in serious trouble with the military!" Riza yelled as loud as she could. If enough people woke up and started yelling together, then maybe someone else would hear them.

"Be quiet!" Kaese whispered loudly. Kaese stepped closer to Riza and tossed aside his clipboard. He then grabbed her chin as Riza turned her face away from him, and he forced her to look back into his spiteful eyes.

Riza struggled in his grip and tried to jerk herself free from her hand shackles. Unfortunately it was no use; the chains were tightly bolted to the wall, and his grip was just too strong. Kaese pushed her up against the wall even harder. "Shut your mouth woman. You're not in Central anymore. You're in my house, and you'll follow my rules," he spat between gritted teeth. His hand then moved from her face to her neck, and he began to tighten his grip, as if to make his point.

Riza couldn't breathe. Kaese stood there and laughed as she struggled for oxygen. Without anywhere to move, Riza quickly thought of things that she could use to defend herself. She would pass out soon if Kaese didn't let go. Luckily, even though her hands were bound, her captors had failed to chain her feet to the wall.

Riza raised her knee up and kicked as hard as she could at him in her only defense. Her leg was right on target. There was a subtle crack as she kicked his kneecap in.

Kaese howled in pain as he clutched his left leg and fell onto the floor in fetal position.

"You bitch, that really hurt!" he yelled, clutching his broken knee.

While Kaese was rocking back and fourth in pain, Riza faintly smiled. She had made her point. Even though she was their hostage, she wasn't going to show that she was afraid of them.

After rolling back onto his knees and panting rapidly, Kaese slowly stood up, clutching his good knee for support. He was still hunched over in pain as he stood.

Kaese staggered over to Riza, and sternly looked her straight in the eyes. "You bitch…you'll regret ever doing that…" Then without blinking, he punched the wall right next to her head. The force of the impact dented the wall, causing cement pieces to crumble out onto her shoulder. Riza winced and then continued to glare back at Kaese. If that punch had hit her, she surely would have been knocked out with a broken skull.

Kaese grabbed the collar of her brown t-shirt and spat on the floor.

"Well, you're a feisty one, aren't 'cha? I like that in a woman! But know your place girl. Remember; _you're_ the hostage. I could have you killed in a few seconds if I wanted too. Unfortunately, I need you for a few more days, so you and I are going to have to learn to get along," he said, grinning manically.

Riza readied herself for another kick if he tried to choke her again.

Noticing Riza's stance, Kaese backed up and smiled maliciously. "Hey, I don't want another knee kicked," he said, laughing and putting his hands on his hips, taking caution to put as little weight on his left leg as he could. "And I suppose because I like women like you, maybe you're worth sharing our plans to. You're a smart girl anyway, so you've probably already figured out at least half of what's going on."

Without letting her guard down, Riza gave him a puzzled look and raised an eyebrow at him.

"So tell me Pumpkin, do you _really_ want to know what our plans are?" Kaese said, smiling evilly at her.

Riza shifted her feet nervously, but didn't say anything. Kaese interpreted this as a 'yes'.

"This 'Games' setup is obviously just a front. This was just a way to gather up all of the alchemists in Amestris into one place. I'm actually quite surprised that so many of them fell for it…"

"Why are you doing this? What is this setup for?" Riza quietly and cautiously asked, already predicting what he was going to say. If this was an Ishbalan rebellion gang gathering all of the alchemists together, then that could only mean one thing…

Kaese laughed manically. "This is all for one big massacre. We're going to kill 'em. All of the State Alchemists will be dead after our fun little 'Games' are over."

Riza's mouth dropped open in horror. "What? Why! That's crazy!"

"Oh, come on. Don't play dumb. You know very well why we'd do this," Kaese said sarcastically.

Taken aback, Riza clamped her mouth shut and shot a glare at him. He was right, she _was_ just playing dumb. Everyone knew that the Ishbalans had tried to get back at the military countless numbers of times for what happened during the Eastern Rebellion, and she was no exception.

"No? Not going to answer? Fine then, I'll humor you. This is only for revenge. This is finally going to be our payback for what you military bastards did to us in the Ishbalan Rebellion. This is for when your lot came in and almost wiped out our entire race," he said, taking a few deep breaths.

"We've tried to attack the military before, but because our resources are so poor, every attempt ended in failure. So, with the help of a few of my associates, we set up this little charade. We're _finally_ going to get some retribution. We're going to kill every State Alchemist one-by-one after the fights when they're tired and exhausted from beating each other up. That way, they won't have the energy to defend themselves. And we'll continue to do this until I _finally _get to meet the ones who took part in that massacre."

Riza interrupted him. "Listen, you can't just blame the military! Things were-"

"The hell I can't! I don't know how much of the battlefield you saw on the day that they brought in 'the heroes for the people'. I was right there as they massacred my friends right in front of me." Kaese shuddered and trailed off. "They say that the alchemists are 'for the people', but it didn't seem like they were a big help when they were killing us off."

Riza stared at him with sadness in her eyes. She too, remembered the blood bath that the military had called 'keeping the peace'. At the time, she couldn't understand why the higher ups were encouraging the war either, but as a soldier, she had a duty to fulfill. Just like now, she had to quickly remind herself, whose side she had chosen.

"What? You can't kill all of the alchemists for what happened in Ishbal! A lot of the alchemist's weren't even in the military when the war started! And you're going to kill them anyway? Revenge won't stop the fighting, or take back all the lives that were lost."

Kaese jumped over to her and pressed his body up against hers, forcing her into a position where she couldn't kick him. He then grabbed her collar again. "No, revenge won't fix anything, but it'll make me feel a hell of a lot better." he said, shoving his face closer to hers and baring his teeth. "And as for the _innocent_ alchemists, as far as I'm concerned, just _belonging_ to the military means that you deserve to die."

Riza took a sharp breath, realizing the danger that everybody was in.

Kaese backed away and continued. "As I said before, we won't stop killing until I find the four alchemists that I personally want to kill," he paused and raised his other hand, holding up four fingers. "Armstrong, Kimbley, Grande and…"

Riza knew what was coming, and her eyes widened in horror. "No!" she yelled.

Kaese laughed. "Yes…and the last one is your special friend Mustang. I have personal matters with him."

"What did he personally do to you? Roy's a good person, and he was only following orders! He didn't even want to be there-"

"That doesn't matter on the battlefield! It only matters what you do, and that man killed my wife and only son in an explosion during one of his patrols."

"What!"

"That's right. Four years ago, he murdered my family! I could never forgive that rat-bastard for what he did. Our only crime was trying to escape certain death from the military."

Riza's eyes were transfixed on Kaese in horror as she listened to his story.

"I remember it like it was yesterday. As we were trying to evacuate the town through one of our alleyways, _he_ came around the corner and found the women and children leaving. All the men were loading supplies into trucks that we'd need to camp out in the desert at the time when it happened. And then suddenly, with a simple snap of his fingers, I had to watch my wife and son burn before my eyes when I ran to see what had caused the giant explosion," Kaese said, and looking down at the floor, remembering what had happened.

"I knew from that day on, that I'd have to kill the Flame Alchemist to get my revenge. But first, before I kill him, I want to make his life as miserable as he's made mine. I want to hurt the people that are close to him, and make him suffer just like I've done for the last four years," he said, stroking Riza's cheek with two of his fingers, implying that they kidnapped her to hurt Roy.

Kaese then jerked Riza's collar, causing her head to slam up against the wall. "And in my opinion," he said, gritting his teeth together, "you deserve to die too for participating in the murder of thousands of my kin. In fact, as I said before, I'd probably kill you right now if I didn't require your _assistance_ to make sure Mr. Mustang behaves while he enjoys his stay here," he said grinning maniacally at Riza.

"No, you can't-"

Just then, two of Kaese's men walked by the cell and Riza cut herself off.

Noticing them, Kaese turned around and called out to them. "You two; take Pumpkin here down to solitary confinement. She doesn't seem to understand her position here. You might need to remind her that she's not the one calling the shots. But keep your guard up. This one's feisty."

The two men looked at each other, chuckled, and went to take Riza away. While they held her arms, Kaese unlocked the cuffs around her wrists.

"Now Riza," he said, stroking her cheek. "Since I told you what you wanted to know, I need you to be a good girl for my men," he said, repositioning himself in front of her. "Here, let me help you calm down," he said, suddenly kneeing her in the stomach.

Riza gasped and doubled over, wheezing.

"That was just a little payback for earlier!" he said, laughing.

She gritted her teeth and looked up at Kaese as his two guards bound her wrists together with some spare rope that they had been carrying. They then hoisted her up on her feet, and practically dragged her out the cell door. Riza turned to look at Kaese once more, ruggedly breathing.

"_Loved _chatting with you Riza. We'll _definitely _have todo it again sometime soon," he said, sarcastically smiling and waving at her. Nodding to the men, they then dragged Riza down the corridor of cells.

During her march, Riza looked into each of the cells they were passing as they made their way down the hall.

As they continued walking and nearing the end of the corridor, Riza's mind was in hysteria with the information that Kaese had shared with her.

'_Kill **all** of the State Alchemists? They can't! They can't kill Roy- I won't let them! I have to get out of here; I have to make sure they don't hurt him! I have a promise and a duty to fulfill -'_

"Okay, here we are!" said one of the two men, opening a solid iron door with a small barred window in it. Riza looked inside. The room was tiny, with just enough room for a bed and a toilet in it. There were no windows in the room either.

"Welcome to solitary confinement!" they said, hurling Riza into the room. She landed on her front side, and immediately struggled to get up. Before she could turn over, one of the men jumped over and straddled her back, forcing her back down against the floor.

"Now we don't need any of that, do we?" he asked rhetorically, putting his lips close to her ear. Riza glared at him through the corner of her eye. "Kaese said to behave, so listen to his orders or else you might get hurt," he said, taking out a knife and cutting the rope that bound her wrists.

The other guard started laughing and stood in front of the door opening. "Yeah, be good girl," he said as the other man got off of Riza.

They then shut the door and left, leaving Riza in a world of darkness, except for the small pool of light entering through the barred window on the door.

Riza sat up and rubbed her head.

"First Lt. Hawkeye, was that you that they were carrying down the hall?" came a voice from across the other side of the door.

The voice sounded familiar to Riza. "Winry? Winry, is that you?" asked Riza, standing up and peeking through the window on her door. Sure enough, it was Winry Rockbell, chained up in the cell that was across from the solitary confinement chamber.

"Yeah! Oh my gosh, it's good to see someone that I know here!"

Riza looked around at their surroundings. "The circumstances could have been better though."

Winry looked down. "I know what you mean." she said quietly.

A few moments of silence passed between them before Winry said anything else.

"1st Lt. Hawkeye, what's going on? Last night a bunch of guys came to the hotel that I was staying in and attacked me. I remember walking in, and they jumped out of the closet. I hit a few of them with the wrench that I was carrying, but then everything else that happened is blank. Next thing I knew, I wake up here. Do you know why we're here? The men told me it had something to do with the State Alchemists. Does that mean that Edward's involved? Is he in trouble?"

Riza sighed. "The only reason why we're here is _because_ of Edward- well that's in your case. In my case, I'm here because of Colonel Mustang."

"What? Colonel Mustang's here too?" Winry asked.

"Yes- or is going to be here. Did Edward ever mention an invitation to something called the Alchemist Games?"

Winry shook her head. "No, he never said anything about that."

Riza then proceeded to tell Winry about the invitations that they had received a few weeks ago, Ed and Roy's refusal to participate, and then the reason why they were kidnapped.

"What! How could they do this to us? Using us just us as hostages to get the Colonel and Ed to cooperate!"

Riza took a deep breath. "And that's not the worst of it," she said before telling Winry about the Ishbalan's true intent.

Winry's eyes suddenly widened. "No…they can't kill Edward…I know he's always getting into trouble like this, but this… this seems serious…" Winry continued to mutter quietly to herself about Ed as her eyes filled up with tears. She never knew how much danger Ed and Al always seemed to find themselves in, and now that she was in one of those situations it scared her.

Riza's stern expression softened. She felt bad for Winry, but now was not the time to break down. Roy and Ed weren't dead yet, and she needed to keep a cool head if they were going to get out of here to warn everybody about what was going on.

"Winry, it's okay. Edward's not hurt yet, and we all know that he can take care of himself. Right now, what we need to do is get outta here."

Winry looked up and sniffed.

Riza continued, looking down at the ground, and then back up again with a newfound sense of determination in her eyes. "Right now, what we need…is a plan."

* * *

Alright! That was the long awaited chapter six! I hope you all liked it! I'm sorry that I made you all wait so long to read it. I promise that my updates will come MUCH sooner, and I'll try to update every two weeks at most. In fact, chapter seven should up and ready to read soon. 

Anyway, I'd like to take this time to thank everybody who's reviewed my story so far:

Thanks to **Kohaku of the Ice,** **blaufeurer, yourmaster, Cles, redsoul, Misao,** **tear drops of flaming darkness, KTRose, Riri senpai, Elemental Transmutation, theslayerslayer, Bod 'm Cariad, don'tbreakme, C.A.M.E.O.1 and Only, Anicka, FruitsBasketFreak44, Italian Charms 587, Noel, ashely, Royai109590, BlondeVeo, skatterkat, Shadow Dreamer 27, Patience Halliwell, Hawkeye Chuui, The New Fullmetal Alchemist, PrincessLuckyCML, Mawk, Gatester, Robingirlwonder, Suki dah Turtle, ZRBxSTITCHES, LuciousLadyLucius, LuSt for SlOtH, **and of course, my editor and friend**, Fuhrer Allie! **I also have to thank her for helping me with some of the dialogue for this chapter. I had some issues with it in the beginning when I wrote up my first draft…it was really cheesey….

Sorry if I forgot anybody's name or misspelled something! You guys are great!

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, whatever, then feel free to review! Reviews are always loved, and are motivation to update sooner! And sorry if Riza or Winry were out of character, but that's sorta what fanfictions are for, right?

PEACE OUT!

-Fullmetalfan


	7. Chapter 7: Let the Games Begin!

Okay, we'll jump right into the story, but I want to announce this as a warning: There is a good amount of swearing in this chapter; probably the most that I've had yet. I know the story is rated "T" anyway, but if you don't like to read no-no words, then I'm sorry. Tough luck, cause I like them in there. **Fuhrer Allie** said I should keep them in there too, because '_it adds to shock value'_, or something along those lines. The words aren't too dirty, so it shouldn't be a problem…it's actually not that bad.

**ALSO:** I state in this chapter that there are about 200 alchemists in Amestris. I have looked this up. According to the Fullmetal Alchemist **Manga Profiles** book, there are about 200 of 'em. If you don't believe this, read it yourselves.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Everyone should know that by now, but just to make sure, I'll say it again. **I. Don't. Own. It.** End of story. However, Kaese, Isaac and Faust are from my own twisted little mind, so don't go take'n 'em.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Let the Games Begin!**

**The Alchemist Games**

Roy was involuntarily jolted awake as the train rumbled to a slow stop. "What's going on? Where am I?" he yawned, stretching his arms above his head. Looking around, Roy noted that it was morning now. Light filtered in through the windows, lighting up the cabin. He stood up, and looked around. He and Ed were the only ones in this part of the train.

"Damn…I shouldn't have fallen asleep…" he muttered, mentally kicking himself for not paying attention to where the train had taken them.

Roy looked out the windows on the left side of the train. Outside, he saw nothing but desert. Scanning the horizon, he tried desperately to pick out a landmark, or something to reveal where he was. He didn't even know if he was still in Amestris. However, he saw nothing. No shrubs, rivers, buildings, or even rocks. There was nothing- nothing but sand, and a lot of it.

While Roy peered out the windows on the left side of the train, Ed, sprawled out across the train seats, began to mumble in his sleep.

"No Al, you don't need to get _me_ the stepstool; I can reach the top shelf. After all, I _am_ 6'5"…" he muttered, completely absorbed in his happy dream.

Roy stifled a laugh. He wasn't going to let Ed ever forget this. However, he jumped in his skin as Ed suddenly rolled over and started to drool.

"_I wish I had a camera…Where's Hughes when you need him the most?" _Roy thought, smirking at the sleeping alchemist. _"As much as I'm enjoying this, I should probably wake him up…" _

"Hey Fullmetal," Roy said, sitting back down in his seat.

Ed merely groaned and started muttering again. "No, not now Al…"

Roy frowned and tried again, but louder this time. "Hey Fullmetal, wake up!" he yelled, shaking Ed's shoulder.

Ed responded by waving his hand lazily at Roy's arm, as if he was swatting a fly away. He then rolled over again so his back was now facing Roy.

Roy smirked evilly this time. "Well, I guess midgets do need their sleep. Keep dreaming Fullmetal, 'cause you'll only ever be 6'5" in your dreams," he muttered.

Snapping up in his seat, Ed angrily yelled out, "Who you call'n a midget bean sprout who'll be small for the rest of his life?!"

Roy laughed as Ed stood up and glared harshly at him.

"I didn't say anything about your height," Roy lied, folding his arms and closing his eyes. "Besides, I don't have to. The numbers speak for themselves."

Ed transmuted his automail into a blade and opened his mouth to respond, but was interrupted of any foul language he could have said as the train's intercom began to make an announcement.

"_All passengers please exit the right side of the train. We have arrived at the tournament grounds. Please take all of your supplies and belongings with you."_

Roy stood up next to Ed and turned towards the exit. Edward suddenly became very serious. "Let's go Colonel," he said, motioning towards the door.

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Stepping out into the hot desert heat, Ed — already back to his usual self — whistled. "Wow, it sure is hot out here. Colonel, any idea about where we are?" he asked, looking around. Roy, oblivious to Ed's question, wasn't paying attention. He was looking up along the rest of the train as other alchemists filed out of the other train cars. It seemed that Ed and Roy had been in the caboose.

Ed, expecting an answer from the Colonel, looked up at him and noticed what he was gazing at. "I didn't know that there were so many State Alchemists in Amestris."

Roy looked down at him. "What, did you think that we were the only ones? There's about 200 of them spread throughout the country."

Ed shot a glare at Roy for the previous comment. "Do you know them all?"

"No. I've met most of them from meetings and such, but I don't have their titles memorized by heart."

Suddenly, the train speaker made another announcement that was loud enough to be heard outside of the cabins of the train.

"_All alchemists please proceed ahead to the coliseum. There you will be briefed on the details of the Alchemist Games, as well as be shown to your living quarters for the competition. Please move now. "_

Ed looked around, but saw no building. "What coliseum are they talking about? I don't even see a building."

Roy also gazed off into the distance, but only saw heat waves dancing off of the sand. "The heat waves are creating the illusion that nothing's there. Come on Fullmetal, I didn't even think that you were_ that_ oblivious. Next time use your head." Roy replied smugly, and turned towards the head of the train.

"Whaddya mean, 'use my head'? I bet that I'm a lot smarter than you-"

"Come on, even if we can't see it, we can still follow the people up ahead who can," Roy said, walking ahead of Edward.

Ed growled at Roy and grudgingly followed behind. "I knew that coming to Central was a bad idea…"

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

As they began walking towards the front of the train, a large image began to appear, as if it were rising out of the sand ripples.

"Wow!" Ed exclaimed, running to catch up with Roy.

They then both stopped and stared at the scene before them as other alchemists filed around them.

Before them was a huge Roman-style type coliseum made of gray granite. Large arches complimented the already massive wooden doors, and stained glass windows patterned the top of the wall — which were also protected by large arches. Hues of blue, red, purple, white and green glass pictured scenes of alchemists, flowers and the elements. There were gargoyles on top of pillars, and intricate carvings along the walls.

After a few seconds of admiring the surprising beauty of the colossal stadium, Edward regained his senses first and cried out, "How the hell did they build this out here?!"

"It doesn't matter, all that we know is that these guys mean business. That's enough, let's quit gawking and go inside," Roy said grumpily as he began walking towards the stone steps. He then stopped, and looked back at Ed through the corner of his eye. "If anything, we need to be careful…we don't know anything about these guys."

"Right- let's do this," Ed agreed, nodding.

As they walked up the steps, the other alchemists who were already there were chatting and gossiping with excitement about the upcoming games. Ed began to fall behind, and soon he was racing up two steps to Roy's every one.

"Damn it Colonel, slow down!" Ed panted at Roy.

"What? I can't help it if you're short and can't keep up."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Ed exploded.

For the rest of the way up the steps, Ed bitched at Roy, and tried to trip him down the stairs. Unfortunately for Ed, Roy saw this coming and Ed was the one who ended up at the bottom of the steps.

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Before long, they had reached the top of what seemed like an endless flight of stone steps to the wooden doors where a crowd was forming.

A man stood as a bouncer in front of the door and yelled above the crowd when most of the alchemists had gathered around. He wore a tight white shirt that showed his chiseled muscles. He also wore baggy black pants, and sunglasses to shield his eyes from the sun, or to just cover them up.

"Everyone, please take out your pocket watches! We have to verify that you are indeed certified as State Alchemists. Please form a line in front of the door!"

Groans and complaints erupted throughout the crowd.

"What's this?!"

"What? Why do we have to wait?"

"Yeah, it's hotter than Hell out here!"

"Why should we have to answer to you? We're professionals here!"

"If anyone wants to question my authority, then take it up with me in the tournament!" various people shouted from the crowd.

Roy and Ed rolled their eyes and sighed as everyone filed into a line.

"Hey, it's nothing personal. I'm just following orders. We just want to make sure you're the real deal," the doorman said.

"Why?" someone yelled in the back of the line.

"Because we don't want any posers, and no more fatalities than are necessary." The man absent-mindedly said.

Suddenly the crowd went silent. "What did you say?" Even Roy and Ed took a sharp breath.

Realizing what he had just said, the bouncer twitched and attempted to rephrase what he 'meant' to say. "Well, uh…you…see, w-what I meant b-by that is that there are, uh…a f-few dangerous tasks that you might h-have to perform…and, uh…we just don't want anyone who's not qualified to attempt something and get hurt," he stammered, obviously flustered. He coughed, and waited to see what the alchemist's reaction would be.

Apparently, this was enough to satisfy the crowd. Conversations picked up again, and everyone loosened up. Everyone that is, except for two.

Ed snorted in disbelief. Tugging on Roy's arm, Roy bent down so Ed could whisper something to him. He already expected what Ed was going to say.

"I can't believe these people! Did I just hear right about the fatalities? Or are they stupid or something? What the hell are these bastards doing in the military?!"

"Well, it goes to show you that not even our government system is perfect."

"I'd be careful if I were you Colonel. That could be taken as treason if heard by the wrong people," said an outside voice.

Ed and Roy jumped in their skin and quickly turned around, prepared to attack. But as soon as Roy saw who had just interrupted their conversation, he relaxed.

Before them stood a man about 6'2", who appeared to be about 39 years of age. He had bushy red hair, and a red goatee to match. He wore thin-rimmed glasses, and a military uniform with a matching hat.

Roy grinned. "Ah, Brigadier General Faust, how have you been? I haven't seen you in months! How are things up North?" he asked, leaning over to shake Faust's hand.

Faust grinned and accepted the handshake. Ed watched with interest and confusion.

"Eh, not bad. Slow, as usual," Faust replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I hear that you got moved to Central! Congratulations! Now they can keep a closer eye on you." he said, grinning.

Ed butted in. "Wait, how do you two know each other?"

Roy laughed. "Oh, sorry Fullmetal. This is Brigadier General Max Faust. Also known as the Raining Mist Alchemist. We were training buddies in basic boot camp. "

Faust also started laughing. "Yeah, those were the good times. I knew him before he ever met Hughes. I was always bewildered at how Roy could keep up with me. Ten years younger, with hardly any stubble on his chin, and he could still match me," he exclaimed, clapping Roy on the back.

"And if I remember correctly, I could even beat you sometimes!" Roy said, grinning. "So Faust, what are you doing here? I didn't think that you'd be interested in stuff like this."

Max stepped back and put his hands in his pockets. Smiling, he replied, "I would have said the same to you. I guess I'm just here to check it out and have fun. The money is an eye opener too. It's been a while since I've really gotten to use my alchemy. So what about you? Are you here for the bragging rights?"

Roy suddenly became very tense. Ed glanced up at Roy, and wondered if he was going to tell this man why they had really come to the _Games_.

Roy regained composure and said, "Yeah, I'm here to…uh…show off my skills."

"Hah! Haven't changed a bit I see," Faust laughed, clasping Roy on the shoulder. "Well, good luck to you both," he said, nodding to Roy and Ed. "See you inside." he added, nodding to Roy once more. He then walked away and took a place up ahead in the line.

"Why didn't you tell him?" Ed asked.

"Come on, lets get in line," Roy quickly said to avoid answering Ed's question.

Ed looked curiously at Roy and shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever."

Roy and Ed took their places in the slow moving line as people flashed their pocket watches at the doorman.

Ed grumbled about how stupid people were while Roy listened to other alchemists' conversations. He listened to see if anyone else had mentioned coming on behalf of someone else. From what he had picked up, everyone else had come to the Games on their own free will.

"_Who are these guys, and what the hell are they planning?"_ Roy thought. "_If were Riza were here, she'd have an idea…"_ A twinge of guilt shook Roy's stomach. He realized that he had no idea where she was, or even if she was alive. But he had to keep faith that she was still breathing. "_Riza…I promise to save you."_

When they had finally reached the front of the line, and Roy absent-mindedly flashed his pocket watch at the doorman. Roy was about to proceed inside with Ed behind him when the bouncer grabbed his arm.

"Hang on," he said, and handed Roy a crumpled note from his pocket. "Let the kid see it too."

Roy looked at the man breathed in sharply. The bouncer's sunglasses had slid down his nose, and Roy looked at him in the eyes. He noticed that his irises were red. The bouncer, noticing this, pushed them immediately back up and roughly let go of Roy's arm. "Get inside," he grunted.

"Hey! Who you calling a kid?! Why don't you say that again-" Ed ranted as Roy dragged him inside by the scruff of his cloak.

Roy's eyes were widened in terror. "_His eyes…they were red…and that can only mean one thing…"'_ he thought, finally connecting the dots. _"Damn it…we're all in great danger… I have to tell Fullmetal, but not here…not now. We have to find Winry and Riza and get everybody out of here, as soon as possible."_

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Inside, Ed calmed down, but began pouting instead. "So, what'd he give us?" Ed grumpily asked with his arms folded across his chest.

"I don't know," Roy said shakily, unfolding the note. "But we're about to find out, and it's probably not something good."

Ed peered over Roy's elbow and they both skimmed the note. It simply said;

_Keep your mouths shut while you're here._

_Tell anyone about your friends, and they'll be the ones who suffer._

_-Isaac_

"That bastard!" Ed yelled after reading the note. "Who does he think he is? I outta-"

"Do nothing. Fullmetal, there is more at stake here than just getting Winry and First Lt. Hawkeye back. You have to remember that we're on their turf. We have to do what they say for the time being." Roy said, walking deeper into the great hall. Alchemists were gathering to sit on benches placed in front of a large podium.

Ed stared at the Colonel. "More at stake…?" he repeated, vaguely understanding what Roy had meant by that. He quickly shut his mouth, and shot a glance at Roy. Roy in return glanced at Ed, and immediately understood that Roy had figured something out. After that, they were both quiet while they looked for a spot to sit.

The hall itself was enormous. Inside, larger arches supported the ceiling along with various stone pillars at the edges and corners of the room. The interior was a dark brown, and the walls were laden with elegantly engraved designs. Various corridors branched off from the main hall.

They continued walking for a while until they reached the back of the hall, close to where the podium was. They both took a seat on an empty bench. The two sat in silence for a while, absorbed in their own thoughts as the other alchemists slowly filled up the room and occupied empty seats.

Soon the hall was full of bodies and chatter, and a man then stepped up onto the podium. Roy scowled as he saw that the man up on the stage was Isaac.

Isaac looked around, satisfied that everyone was in the hall now. He adjusted his microphone and then tapped it a couple of times while clearing his throat to get everybody's attention. The alchemists settled down, and he smiled when everyone was quiet.

"Welcome brilliant State Alchemists!" he yelled enthusiastically while spreading his arms out wide. "It's an honor that all of Amestris' greatest and most prestigious alchemists are all settled here under one roof on this very day. My name is Isaac, and I'm the one in charge of this fantastic, fun little event. If you have any questions, you can ask me or my men and we'll help you. You can also consult the guidebook that we sent you for the basics. There, there should be some basic information about the event. Are there any questions right now that I can answer before we start the event?"

Ed leaned back in his seat and whispered to Roy, "Did he say something about a book? How come we didn't get one?"

"They must have sent it to the people who originally R.S.V.P'd."he answered, assuming that that was the case.

"How come the tournament was so short noticed?" somebody yelled from the back of the room.

"Ah, very good question," Isaac said calmly. "You see, we're being sponsored by a few very wealthy people, and in order to do this, we had to agree on a time. I'm sorry if the announcement was sudden, but it was when they wanted it. Anything else?"

"How come there's no publicity?"

"So impatient! Of course there will be publicity, but we wanted to keep the information quiet while we were still setting up. The world will know who is the greatest as soon as the competition is over. Anything else?"

The room was silent for a few minutes. In the background, somebody coughed.

"Alrighty then…now that there are no more questions, and I know how eager we all are to start the competition, I'll get right down to the rules."

A murmur of excitement swept through the halls like wildfire, and everyone shifted in their seats.

Isaac raised his hands over his head and waited for everyone to quiet down. "Over the course of a few weeks, you all will participate in a series of short competitions. This will determine who the most skilled alchemist here is. Tasks are completely random, and could be anything from one-on-one fights to who can create the prettiest rocking horse. Now, you may be wondering why we'd do this, but the point is that there is no way to prepare for them. Here, we are testing your quick thinking and alchemic ability. There is no such thing as cheating. Anything goes. We'll find out who is the best through elimination. If you loose, you leave. No exceptions. We will award the prize money to the last competitor. Now, there's one other-"

"Wait, why can't we stay and see the rest of the tournament?" somebody from the audience yelled.

Isaac looked like he was going to pop a vein at the disturbance. Ed noticed this, and laughed quietly while making a face at Isaac. "Because we don't know how long this will take," Isaac responded smoothly while regaining his composure. "And I'm sure that ranking officers such as yourselves are needed back at your headquarters."

Roy and Ed's eyes widened. How could people buy this bullshit? Ed made the motion to stand up, but Roy immediately grabbed his arm and pulled him down. Ed shot a glare at Roy, and Roy pulled out the note to remind Ed about the consequences of speaking.

Isaac's excuse seemed to satisfy the audience's question, because no one pursued it. Isaac went back to making his introduction.

"Right then…are there anymore questions? No? Alright then. Now if you'll follow me this way, we can start the first task."

"What?!" the hall erupted with yells as everyone jumped to their feet. "We haven't even been here an hour!" This even surprised Roy.

"Like I said, the events are random. If you've got a problem with it, then go home. There's about 200 of you, and we need to cut that number at least in half while the train is still here," he said, looking sternly into the crown. "Now if you'll follow me down the hall, we'll go to the arena."

Scuffs and scrapes echoed through the hall as the alchemists pushed the benches back and rose to their feet. Ed and Roy quickly exchanged glances.

"_Riza, here I come." _Roy thought, punching a fist into his other hand.

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Entering through a long hall, the alchemists followed Isaac like baby ducks going to a pond. They then turned down another wing, and walked carefully up a steep flight of stairs that was dimly lit with candles. At the top of the stairs, it opened up onto a large balcony. Upon reaching the balcony, everyone gasped. They were inside a giant dome, with a large, multi-pane window on top allowing light to filter through. Inside, the room itself was like a giant round coliseum, and alchemists were watching from the top. Stone bleachers wrapped around the room like a giant bowl. At the bottom of the arena stood a giant rock maze.

Isaac watched the alchemist's expressions change. "Impressive, isn't it?" he asked, folding his arms. He then turned around and faced the militia men. "Welcome to where the _Alchemist Games_ will be held. This is the coliseum," he spread his arms out, "as you can see, that maze down there is your first task. You will all be divided into groups, which will enter though four different points into the maze. In the center of it, there is a large circle. The first one hundred people to get to the circle move onto the next round. You can use alchemy in any way you like, but you can't break down the walls. Now, let's get started. Everyone follow me, and watch your step."

The crowd buzzed with excitement. Roy and Ed merely followed, listening to the conversations. Somewhere they heard Armstrong saying, "My maze navigation techniques have been passed down through the Armstrong family line for generations…" The two exchanged glances and sighed. At least somebody was having fun.

At the bottom, Isaac put them into different groups by counting off heads. He put Roy and Ed into different groups, grinning maliciously as he numbered them off.

"Well, I guess you're on your own kid." Roy said, looking over to Ed.

"Good. I don't want to work with you anyway. I'll save Winry myself, and you can worry about First Lt. Hawkeye. Besides, you're an old man. You'll just slow me down."

This made Roy laugh. "Alright, suit yourself. But you'll be the one who's eating my dust."

"All right people! You know the rules, and be careful. We've put a few 'surprises' in the maze for you to make it interesting," he said, chuckling. People didn't have a lot of time to think about the presents that Isaac had left for them however because he immediately said to go to their starting positions.

Isaac walked back up to the balcony where they had all come in from so everyone could see him. "All right everybody! Remember, the object of this event is to make it to the center as fast as you can before everyone else. Only the first one hundred to reach the center will move on. You can use your alchemy, but not to break down walls. Travel alone or in a group- it's your choice. Just remember, there are dangerous booby-traps in there," he said, positioning himself a little better to see everybody. "Okay, at the sound of the gun you can begin!" he shouted through a funnel to amplify his voice.

Another man walked up the stairs and handed Isaac the gun. He raised it over his head and fired a shot. "BEGIN!"

Everyone rushed forward into the maze, and the Alchemist Games had officially begun.

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Once inside the maze, Roy immediately split up from the rest of the group he had been put with. At the first fork in the maze, when they took a right, he had discretely turned left.

Roy stopped and waited until their voices faded away. Dark inside the maze, the walls loomed at least forty feet above his head. He continued walking, concentrating on finding the middle of the maze and passing the first event. He decided to light a spark to help light his way. He controlled the air around his glove using alchemy, and carried the fire in his palm.

A frightening scream cut through the air. Roy stopped dead in his tracks and quietly listened. _"Oh yeah…I forgot about the surprises…looks like somebody already found one. I better hurry up…"_ he thought, hoping he would be lucky enough to not encounter one. He quickened his pace, and took the time that he had to figure out what the hell was going on here. _"Okay, so I know that the guys running this thing are Ishbalan. That much is clear. They gathered all of the State Alchemists into one place, which could only mean one thing…they want to try and take us out in one swoop. But why now, and-" _

Suddenly, Roy's foot sank into one of the cobblestones in the stone floor and he stumbled forward as he activated a switch. "Oh shit!" he yelled, once again, forgetting that the maze had booby traps. Slots in one of the walls opened up, and arrows launched themselves out across the hallway where he was. Roy quickly ducked down to dodge the first wave of arrows.

"Crap!" Another wave of arrows flew by him, and he ran forward, dodging as he went. "Enough of this!" he yelled, throwing himself against the wall and snapping his fingers. He sent a stream of fire at all of the arrows and arrow vents in the wall. When the smoke had cleared, there was nothing but ashes riding on the smoke that was flowing upward from the arrow shoots.

"That was close…" he said, panting and straightening himself upright. "What the hell is the point of all of this?" he asked himself, brushing a bit of ash off of his overcoat. "Soon, before I know it, I'll be running from giant rocks and dodging swinging axes..."

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Walking deeper into the maze, Roy lost count of the number of turns he had made. Right, left, right, right, left…it was all a blur now. He figured that he was getting close to coming to the middle because the halls were gradually getting much wider and brighter, with more light shining through. Since the arrows incident, Roy hadn't encountered anymore "gifts" that Isaac had talked about. He carefully watched his footing, and carefully looked around each corner he turned down. However, Roy was becoming a little apprehensive. He hadn't seen anybody else since the beginning, and was starting to wonder who, if anybody, had already made it to the middle. He also became very suspicious of the surroundings. Without anymore action, he wondered what else was in store for him. _"I can't possibly have this good of luck…" _he thought. _  
_

And soon, he was right. Roy came to another turn point, and carefully watched his footing. He walked around, and saw that he had come to a four way intersection. There was a strange sound coming from the end of one of the halls. _"Is that…growling" _he wondered with his back pressed against the wall. He then tightened the glove on his right hand, letting his imagination predict what was around the corner.

"Okay…on the count of three…one…two…three!" he muttered, jumping into the wide intersection.

What he saw was NOT what he was expecting. Roy's eyes widened. Before him stood a giant chimera that was half lion, eagle, alligator and turtle. He had only seen a few failed chimera experiments, but never a live one, and never one this big. He had heard that Shou Tucker, the Sowing Life alchemist had once created a talking chimera, but Roy himself had never had a chance to see it.

It didn't notice Roy right away as he jumped out. The chimera was distracted by something clad in blue. Roy glanced down at what the beast was preoccupied with, and gasped. The beast was already licking the blood off the back of a fallen State Alchemist, whose uniform was torn up.

Finally noticing Roy, the chimera (which we will now refer to as the Linogator: pronounced Line-oh-gay-tor) looked up, smacking its lips. It began to get up, and Roy immediately snapped his fingers, sending a wave of fire towards the Linogator. Roaring from the pain, the chimera jumped out of the flames and towards Roy. He dodged its massive claws, barely escaping death. The linogator turned around, its scaly skin steaming as it landed on all four legs on the stone ground. It flicked his tail back and forth, baring its dripping fangs.

"_I knew I wasn't going to be off scott-free just because of some arrows!" _Roy began to back up to the other side of the wall, sweating.

The Linogator struck again, jumping at Roy's outstretched right arm. Roy dropped and rolled, but the linogator managed to quickly slash at his shoulder. Claws tore through flesh as Roy screamed in agonizing pain.

Roy jumped up and away, clutching his shoulder which was now dripping with his own blood. The right shoulder on his coat had quickly turned from a blue to dark shade of maroon.

The chimera lunged at Roy again, and he jumped back, skidding on his feet. Now the two paced around each other, and the linogator growled as it steadily backed Roy into the wall.

"Who in the world would create such a beast as you…you abomination…?" he taunted the chimera, not that it could even understand him.

The Linogator leaped up to strike again, with both of its paws aimed at Roy's heart.

"Gotcha!" Roy yelled, somersaulting forward and snapping his fingers at the same time, sending a stream of fire at the chimera's belly. It scorched him, and the beast catapulted forward, hitting the wall that Roy was just backed up against. Roaring in pain, it slid down, legs ajar when it landed on the cobblestone floor. It twitched and growled, but didn't get up. Its stomach and underside were steaming. Pieces of skin and hair were burnt up as Roy smelled the sickening smell of burning flesh.

Roy stood up, holding his shoulder and panting. He frowned slightly at the creature, and slowly sauntered over to it. For a moment, the two beings made eye contact. Roy saw rage in the creature's eyes, as well as pain. He then raised his left arm and snapped again.

The chimera roared one last time, and then was silent as the flames engulfed him. Roy stood for a few moments and watched as the flames died down. Soon, all that was left were the remains of the charred skeleton.

He sighed, and winced as his bloody shoulder throbbed. "This isn't good…" he muttered looking at his arm. He then remembered the corpse that the monster was snacking on. Roy walked over and turned the man over grimly with his good arm. He hoped that it was nobody that he knew.

_"Well that's a relief…"_ he thought upon seeing the man's face. It was no one that Roy had ever met before, but when he saw the cold, glazed eyes of the alchemist, he threw up a bit in his mouth. Coughing, Roy stumbled back with his eyes watering. He had seen death before, but it never got any easier.

Getting a hold of himself, he looked one last time at the body. "You poor sap…we have no idea about what we've gotten ourselves into," Roy walked over to the wall farthest from the body and leaned against it, sliding down to the floor. The blood from his right shoulder left a skid mark, with the crimson standing out against the grey. Resting a bit, Roy closed his eyes and ripped off his sleeve. He looked at the wound. It wasn't fatal, but it wasn't going to stop bleeding on its own. Roy tried to apply pressure to the wound, and then decided to wrap his shoulder by ripping another piece of his uniform off. _"This is defiantly going to slow me down…But, I can't afford to be slow...not when Riza is at stake. There's only one way to fix this so I don't have to worry about it though..." _Roy thought, mentally preparing himself to cauterize his own wound. This was not going to be pretty…

_-------------------------------------------------------------------------_

Roy trudged down the next hall grumpily. He was still in pain, even if the wound had stopped bleeding. He was glad that no one was around to see him cauterize his injury. He had probably screamed the loudest he had ever screamed in his entire life, not to mention that he had nearly passed out twice. "If only Fullmetal could have seen me…for once, he'd probably be able to come up with a good insult…" he muttered to himself.

Slowly, moving his arm as little as possible, he continued marching. As he passed another four way intersection, Roy began to hear voices and screams. Instantly thinking there was another chimera, Roy ran towards the noise ready to snap his fingers. Turning around the corner, he saw that there were signs of transmutations taking place.

"What the-" he said, looking around at a few fallen bodies. Most of them were still breathing, but injured very badly. He looked over and saw the thing that had caused this much damage. Roy gasped.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he screamed at the source of all of the disaster.

* * *

MWUHAHAHAHAH, A CLIFF HANGER! Sorry peeps, but I couldn't help it. It seemed like a good place to stop the chapter. But anyway, another chapter down! And this time, I finally got to write something exciting. I apologize for writing so many filler chapters…but they needed to happen. At least now the Games are beginning, and I get to write more action scenes. I apologize for taking so long to get this chapter out. I wanted to get chapter eight done as well, so I could update quickly and already know what is going to happen. 

When I was typing up this chapter, I couldn't stop myself from laughing in multiple parts. The first thing I couldn't stop laughing at was how stupid I made the military look. But **Fuhrer Allie**, after reading this, told me, "Don't worry about how dumb they are. You don't have a long way to go to make them look stupid and oblivious anyway…I mean, just reread graphic novel seven again. They weren't exactly the brightest crayons in the box when the Fuhrer was fighting Greed, or when Ed was in Lab 5." Which I have to say, is totally true.

And the second main thing that I realized after I was done with this chapter was when Isaac shot the gun. I realized that he shot it into the air, but where did the bullet go? The roof is made of GLASS! I should have made the bullet break a window and shower him with sharp shards of death. I hate Isaac and Kaese's character, but I love writing them. They're so…evil. Good for bad guys, no?

Anyway, thank you to all of those who reviewed the last chapter, and thanks again **Fuhrer Allie** for editing my story! I can guarantee that chapter 8 is going to be totally action packed! Who/what is the thing that Roy encountered at the end? Soon, you'll get to find out! And, as always, reviews are welcomed and loved! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll update! (Which shouldn't be long, because chapter eight is already done!) Oh, and a super-duper special thanks to **True Serac **for reading and reviewing all of my chapters in one sitting! It totally made my day. He writes some good stuff. I highly recommend that you check it out!

Thanks for reading!

-Fullmetalfan


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